Staff correspondent :
Bangladesh take on Sri Lanka in their second match of the Asia Cup Super Four phase tomorrow (Saturday) at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, a game which turned out to be another ‘do or die contest’ for them.
The match starts at 3.30pm and will be aired live on Gazi TV and T Sports.
Bangladesh found them in this ‘must win’ situation after their seven-wicket defeat to Pakistan in their Asia Cup Super Four opening game in Lahore. A defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka will effectively ruin their hopes of playing the Asia Cup final.
The Tigers in fact started their Asia Cup mission with a five-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka at Pallekele in group phase, which made their game against Afghanistan a ‘do or die’ game.
Bangladesh however responded brilliantly, crushing Afghanistan by 89 runs as they racked up 334-5, their highest total on foreign soil, in the process.
The question is whether Bangladesh could go a high gear for another time in another must win situation.
Bangladesh were already weakened by the absence of Najmul Hossain Shanto, an in form batter who suffered a hamstring injury during his match winning 104 runs against Afghanistan.
Liton Das replaced him but couldn’t ensure the consistency that Shanto provided of late. Liton, an immensely talented player, though has been the best batter for Bangladesh for the last years, had suffered an inconsistency issue recently, which is now a spot of bother for the team.
In the last five years, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka match produced some heated moments with the incident of Nidahas Trophy still fresh in the mind of the players of the two countries. However there was no hint of bitter rivalry in the first match.
Sri Lanka though won the first game against Bangladesh with ease, they were put in sword during their game against Afghanistan, who even could win the match if their team management could be more proactive in calculating the run rate issue.
Even though Bangladesh lost the first game to Sri Lanka, Since 2015, when they established them as the giant of the ODI format, they had the upper-hand over the Lankans.
Overall in Asia Cup, the two teams met 16 times with Sri Lanka winning 13 of them.
In total, the two teams met 52 times in ODI format of cricket with Sri Lankan emerging as winner for 41 times while Bangladesh won 9 matches. The rest of the two matches were washed out.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan hopes his team would respond enthusiastically in another must win situation.
“We have been doing well in our bowling department. Batting at this moment is little bit hot and cold. We need to be consistent and that’s what we’ll try to do,” Shakib said after the match against Pakistan.
“We have to take it on our chin and move to the next one as we have another game against Sri Lanka and I hope we can bounce back to the winning way.”
Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Liton Das, Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan, Naim Sheikh, Shamim Hossain Patwari, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Anamul Haque Bijoy Sri Lanka: Dasun Shanaka (capt), Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, Kasun Rajitha, Dushan Hemantha, Binura Fernando, Pramod Madushan.
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