Sri Lanka record come from behind win over Bangladesh

The writing was on the wall for Sri Lanka in their World Cup warm-up game against Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday when they were reduced to 75 for six chasing a target of 148. All the big guns; Kusal Perera, Dinesh Chandimal, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Dasun Shanaka had fallen for low scores but a stunning unbroken seventh wicket stand between Avishka Fernando and Chamika Karunaratne rescued them and in the end Sri Lanka cruised to a four wicket win with six balls to spare.

There was no television coverage of the game and to make matters worse, there were no updates of the scores either in any of the online scoring platforms. So fans had to entirely depend on a couple of Sri Lankan journalists in UAE to know the outcome of the game. There was a sigh of relief in the middle of the night when photographer Sameera Peiris, who is doing some freelance work for The Island, broke the news that Sri Lanka had secured a hard fought win.

The partnership between Avishka and Chamika was worth 73 runs and came off 55 balls. Avishka finished unbeaten on 62 off 42 balls with four fours and three sixes while Chamika was 29 not out off 25 balls with one four and a six.

Avishka was expected to open the batting but on Tuesday, he batted at number four and it remains to be seen what Sri Lanka will do with the 23-year-old prodigy when the qualifiers start.

While some feel that he is better off opening the innings to exploit the field restrictions during Power Play, others believe that Aravinda’s heir should bat where the greatest batsman produced by the nation batted – number four.

Chamika, meanwhile, needs to make a lot of improvements to his game but in the brief time he has been with Sri Lanka, he has shown a lot of promise and looks to be the kind of player who needs to be given the long rope.

Dushmantha Chameera did not play a single IPL game despite being called up by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the second leg of the IPL. He showcased what RCB lacked by bowling a superb spell on Tuesday and finished with three wickets.

Wanidu Hasaranga, Lahiru Kumara, Maheesh Theekshana and Dasun Shanaka finished with a wicket each as Sri Lanka restricted Bangladesh for 147. Soumya Sarkar top scored for Bangladesh with 34 runs.

A hamstring injury to Kusal Perera last month was a huge worry for Sri Lanka ahead of the World Cup. But he has recovered and played Tuesday’s warm-up game although he only made four runs.

Sri Lanka’s second warm-up game is today against Papua New Guinea in Abu Dhabi.

Bangladesh, Oman and Papua New Guinea are playing the qualifying round in Group ‘B’ and two teams will go through.

The former champions will remain in Abu Dhabi for their first two games of the qualifying round in Group ‘A’ against Namibia and Ireland. They will move to Sharjah for the third game against Netherlands. Sri Lanka need to win two of the three qualifying games to progress to the World Cup.

Sri Lanka had reached the finals of the T-20 World Cup on three occasions; 2009 in London, 2012 in Colombo and 2014 in Dhaka. They were champions in the 2014 edition beating India in the finals.

Brief Scores:

Bangladesh 147 for seven in 20 overs

(Sayumya Sarkar 34, Dushmantha Chameera 3/27)

Sri Lanka 148 for six in 19 overs

(Avishka Fernando 62*, Chamika Karunaratne 29*)