Bangladesh lose ODI series with one match to spare

Stand in-captain Tamim Iqbal-led Bangladesh lost the three-match ODI series 0-2 after suffering 2nd successive defeat to Sri Lanka at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.

Bangladesh, who were defeated by seven wickets in the 2nd match, will now play the last match on July 31 at the same venue eying to avoid a whitewash. 

As the first game of the series, Bangladesh were poor in every department of the game in the 2nd match. They failed to put up a challenging total on the board while batting first. Later, they failed to defend a sub-par total of 238 while bowling. 

Bangladesh batted first after winning the toss and posted 238 for eight in 50 overs thanks to hard-fought innings of 98 off Mushfiqur Rahim. The other batsmen were disappointed to respond according to the demand of the team.

While replying, Sri Lanka passed the 100-run mark in 17 overs relying on the aggressive batting of Avishka Fernando who ended scoring 82 off 75 with nine fours and two sixes. 

He helped Sri Lanka post 71 runs in the opening stand that laid the foundation of the win for the hosts. 

Mustafizur Rahman took two wickets but his efforts were not enough to avoid the second successive loss to Sri Lanka. 

Eventually, the hosts scored 242 for three in 44.4 overs. Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis remained unbeaten on 52 and 41 respectively. 

Earlier, despite a fragile show from the middle order once again, Mushfiqur Rahim hit unbeaten 98 to take the Tigers to 238 for 8 in 50 overs in the 2nd match of the three-match ODI series.

Mushfiqur needed five runs in the last over to hit his eighth ODI ton, but the batsman managed only three and remained unbeaten on 98. 

In the very first delivery of the last over, Mushfiqur took a single to give the strike to Taijul Islam, who ran for a run in the next ball in spite of not hitting the ball and got run out at the non-striker end. Mushfiqur took another single from the third ball. New batsman Mustafizur Rahman followed what Taijul did but managed to escape a run-out and got three runs thanks to an over-through.

At this stage, Mushfiqur got two balls to complete his ton. But the batsman took a single from the fifth ball and missed the chance.

Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first but failed to get rid of poor batting display as they lost half of their wickets before posting 100 runs on the board. 

Soumya Sarkar was the first man to get dismissed for only 11. He failed to judge the pace of Nuwan Pradeep who delivered a full toss. Soumya went to push it to the cover but missed the line and the ball hit his pad. Subsequently, he was given out by the umpire. Soumya has a long chat with his partner Tamim before walking off the field. 

Tamim (19), Mohammad Mithun (12), Mahmudullah (6) and Sabbir Rahman (11) failed to impress, and Bangladesh suffered another collapse in the middle order. They lost five wickets in 88 runs. They lost Mosaddek Hossain (13) as well in 117 runs. 

However, in the 7th wicket stand, Mushfiqur and Mehidy Hasan Miraz added 84 runs, which helped the Tigers past the 200-run mark and gave them a fighting score at the end of the innings. 

For Sri Lanka, Nuwan Pradeep, Isuru Udana and Akila Dhananjaya bagged two wickets each while Bangladesh lost two wickets off run-outs.

Source: unb