Bangladesh, Sri Lanka score thrilling wins in Asia Cup

Pakistan lost a thriller to Bangladesh to crash out of Asia Cup while India lost to Bangladesh in a similar manner but still kept their date with the final on Sunday in Colombo.   

The two matches were different in nature. While Pakistan and Sri Lanka battled in a virtual semi-final with the winner qualifying for Sunday’s title clash, India, who were already in final by virtue of wins over Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Super Fours, played an inconsequential game against Bangladesh.

It was no surprise that India rested some of their key players like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj and Hardik Pandya bringing in Tilak Varma, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur.

Bangladesh made 265/8 in 50 overs with Shakib al Hasan scoring 80 and Towhid Hridoy making 54.

Thakur took 3//65 and Shami 2/32.

In response, Shubman Gill made 121 and even as wickets fell he stood his ground as Bangladesh spinners weaved a web after the early strikes by debutant Tanzim Hasan Sakib.

Bangladesh won by six runs as India were all out for 259 in 49.5 overs.

The match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan went down to the last ball. The game was reduced to 42 overs.

Pakistan batted first and thanks to Muhammad Rizwan’s 86 not out (73 balls) and Iftikhar Ahmed’s 47, they reached 252/7 in the allotted 42 overs.

Matheesh Pathirana (3/65) and Pramod Madushan (2/58) were the most successful bowlers.

In response, Sri Lanka started well but messed up the chase towards the end as Iftikhar bowled impressive off-spin and took 3/50. Sadeera Samarawickrama made 48 off 51 balls while Charith Asalanka remained unbeaten on 49 off 47 balls. Sri Lanka made 252/8 in 42 overs to win on Duckworth-Lewis method.  

Asia Cup, cricket, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka