Sri Lanka eye series win in post-Malinga era
View(s):Going 1-0 up in a three-match ODI series following Sri Lanka’s emphatic 91-run win against Bangladesh on Friday in the first game, which happened to be the farewell game for the legendary bowler Lasith Malinga, the home team would highly anticipate to record an early cleanup when the two teams meet again today, at the R. Premadasa Stadium (RPICS).
From Sri Lanka’s point of view, the hosts will be minus their match-winning bowler, Malinga, and are embarking on a whole new journey, more or less, like a virtual young side. Bangladesh may have had a bitter taste at their first outing, chasing 315 for victory. They were skittled out for 223 inside the 42nd over.
It is a well known fact that the tracks at RPICS, Colombo has the potential to go for bigger scores and chasing down with a well-planned strategy, is not a daunting task. However the toss will be vital and any side that wins it, would not hesitate to take the first lease of the bat. Yet it all depends on the fact that who plays clinically.
Sri Lanka would have had a few hiccups before the first game after their World Cup campaign, in which only a handful managed to strike form. One of them is Avishka Fernando, who was promoted to the opener’s slot, yet failed to make an impact on Friday. But Man-of-the-Match Kusal Janith Perera’s 99-ball 111 is a welcome sign for Sri Lanka.
Adding to that Kusal Mendis regained form with a fluent 43 off 49 balls and former skipper Angelo Mathews continued his form from the World Cup with a valuable knock of 48 off 52 deliveries, yet a sudden strike-back from the Bangladeshis is a possibility.
With Malinga officially retired from the side, the onus will be on other bowlers, in particularly the speedsters. Sri Lanka used four of them and a spinner in Dhananjaya de Silva, who was quite decent to claim two scalps conceding 49 runs after 10 overs. This is a good indication from Sri Lanka’s point of view, if they are looking to field an extra spinner in place of Malinga.
Bangladesh batsmen failed to click besides Mushfiqur Rahim and Sabbir Rahman, who put on their team’s best partnership of 111 runs for the fifth wicket. Their openers failed to strike, including skipper Tamim Iqbal. Both fell for identical Malinga toe-crushers, and with the absence of the slinger from the second and third games, the visitors would potentially use that gap to dominate in batting — weather batting first or chasing a target. As Bangladesh skipper Iqbal said, the whole team should take the responsibility more seriously and look at striking back and claim the series 2-1.
Bangladesh is unlikely to do any changes to their side that played on Friday, and according to Iqbal, they were positioned well to chase 315 despite losing early wickets. They would dearly miss the presence of star allrounder Shakib Al-Hasan, but this side still has that ability to hit and run on a perfect day.
The emphatic win in the first game would obviously put Sri Lanka on the box seat, and they are likely to make only one replacement, that is filling in the place left open by Malinga, probably with seaming all-rounder Dasun Shanaka. Almost everything worked out fine for Sri Lanka on Friday and they will anticipate to stream-roll from the momentum gained from Friday.
Today’s second ODI, which is a Day/Night game, is a well poised one and Sri Lanka holds the upper hand after claiming the first win. After all, both sides are in fine shape and Sunday’s match will be vital for Sri Lanka to record an early series win, and for Bangladesh to level the series and make a strong comeback.
Sri Lanka (from): Dimuth Karunaratne (Captain), Kusal Janith Perera, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne, Shehan Jayasuriya, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Akila Dananjaya, Nuwan Pradeep, Lahiru Kumara, Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana, Kasun Rajitha, Dasun Shanaka
Bangladesh (from): Tamim Iqbal (Captain), Anamul Haque, Farhad Reza, Mahmadullah, Mehedy Hasan, Mohammad Mithun, Msaddek Hossain, Muchfiqur Rahim, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed