Sri Lanka Vs
Bangladesh at Premadasa, Colombo - 23.7.2004
ScorecardI
Cricketfundas Highlights presented by B.V.Swagath
Sri
Lanka – The Lions are roaring and are hungry for the Asia Cup
Title. Bangladesh – lots of opportunities and lots of dreams. An
easy prey ahead for the Lankan Lions at the Premadasa, would
Bangladesh come up with any miracle today? In short, it was a match
between the Lions and the Cubs (affectionately called as Tigers by
its followers). Good old Premadasa – the favourite ground for the
Lankans was the venue.
The Flip Of
the Coin
Marvan Atapattu won the toss and elected to put in Bangladesh (may
be he wanted to have a quick and short game?). Anyway, Sri Lanka
brought back its raw quick bowler Lasith Malinga and rested Nuwan
Zoysa. Bangladesh brought Tapash Baisya for World Record Holder for
the “most expensive 1st over in an innings”, Tareq
Aziz.
The Bangladesh
Innings
No more experiments of Habibul opening the innings, Ashraful found a
new partner in Rajin Saleh. So does that make any difference to the
match? Absolutely no…with Lasith Malinga at his fiery best, it was
just few minutes before Banglas lost Saleh. At one end, it was Vaas
who was mixing up things and giving nothing away and at the other it
was Malinga going past the throat of the batsmen with speeds of 140
plus. Bangladesh just didn’t have the class and the talent to
handle such hostile stuff and surrendered meekly to 31/4. The real
highlight was Alok Kapali’s run out, which defined new ways of
losing a wicket. Little Ashraful was the culprit, as he forced
Kapali to take off for a non-existent single with the ball in the
hands of Mahela Jayawardene at 1st Slip! Ashraful had to
make sure that he stays in the middle for a long time and avoid two
angry men – one was Dave Whatmore and the other was Alok Kapali.
Manjural Islam Rana was the man who partnered Ashraful to help
Bangladesh out of an embarrassment. Both the young men occupied the
crease and survived the quicks and the tweaks of Murali and Chandana;
a good partnership indeed, as the two took Bangladesh to 131/5 in
the 42nd over with Manjural (43 from 83 balls) getting
out trying to score quick runs. Ashraful also got out with BD at
151/6 in the 45th over, and his personal score of 66 from
120 balls. The remaining batsmen the two Khaleds, Rafique and Baisya
scored 32 off the remaining 32 balls to take Bangladesh at 182/9 in
50 overs. Chaminda Vaas was the most successful bowler with 3/30.
Sri Lankan
Chase
With
such a small total of 183 to chase against a weak-bowling attack of
Bangladesh, we were in for an early finish. It was time to sitback and
sip Dilmah tea with Jayasuriya and Gunawardene going hammers and
tongs against the Bangla bowlers. If Jayasuriya’s batting was the
entertainment for the evening then, Avishka Gunwardene’s batting
was the bonus show! Our little Chacha – Khaled Mahmud was treated
like a lolli-pop bowler and was hit mercilessly for 40 runs in his 5
overs. Powerful shots in both off and on side, from both Sanath and
Avishka were being witnessed and the Lankan score was flying just
like the white ball hit by the two batsmen. Sanath muscled his way
to an explosive hundred off 99 balls! And you could say, Sanath
Jayasuriya was back in form. And guess what just like Sachin
Tendulkar, Jayasuriya is also back in form with a big score against
the weak bowling attack of Bangladesh? Gunawardene was taking the
backseat and was allowing Sanath do the maximum scoring and the two
openers took Lanka to a thumping win in just 33.3 overs. Sanath was
obviously awarded the Man of the Match.
It
was yet another one-sided game, Bangladesh once again didn’t do
anything but clap for their opposition’s performance. It’s high
time that the Bangladesh Cricketers make their loyal fans happy and
make their BIG BIG DREAMS fulfilled atleast to some extent. Sri
Lanka, they are back to their den and there’s absolutely no
stopping for the Lankan team or the Dilmah Tea in this edition of
the Indian Oil Asia Cup2004!
With
such a small total of 183 to chase against a weak-bowling attack of
Bangladesh, we were in for an early finish. It was time to sitback and
sip Dilmah tea with Jayasuriya and Gunawardene going hammers and
tongs against the Bangla bowlers. If Jayasuriya’s batting was the
entertainment for the evening then, Avishka Gunwardene’s batting
was the bonus show! Our little Chacha – Khaled Mahmud was treated
like a lolli-pop bowler and was hit mercilessly for 40 runs in his 5
overs. Powerful shots in both off and on side, from both Sanath and
Avishka were being witnessed and the Lankan score was flying just
like the white ball hit by the two batsmen. Sanath muscled his way
to an explosive hundred off 99 balls! And you could say, Sanath
Jayasuriya was back in form. And guess what just like Sachin
Tendulkar, Jayasuriya is also back in form with a big score against
the weak bowling attack of Bangladesh? Gunawardene was taking the
backseat and was allowing Sanath do the maximum scoring and the two
openers took Lanka to a thumping win in just 33.3 overs. Sanath was
obviously awarded the Man of the Match.