What a match!!!!! I don't imagine that Bangladesh will bat so well. Because usually we never see Bangladesh batting well in big targets. We have seen this in very few matches. So today after giving Sri Lanka a target of 207 I was sure that Bangladesh team is going to be defeated. I thought Bangladesh would lose by a big margin. But Bangladesh lost by just 3 runs.
Bangladesh needed only 11 runs in the last over. Bangladesh would have won the match if they had not lost two wickets in the last over. But today the performance of Bangladesh's top order was poor. Captain Shanto scored 20 runs off 22 balls. When the team is batting on such a big target, the batsmen should definitely bat at a smart strike rate.
Today Mahmudullah scored 54 runs from 31 balls and Jaker Ali scored 68 runs from 34 balls. Besides, none of the batsmen in the squad can bat well.
Anyway, congratulations to the Sri Lankan team. They advanced by winning the first match of the three-match series.
We have a good interesting end of this first game with both teams give their best till last ball and at the end we have better team as winner even there was good chance for the Bangladesh to win this game but Dusan Shanaka done good job and have won for his team Mahmudullah and Jaker Ali both were at his best, but their finishing was not good as required specially last wicket of the Jaker Ali in last over give good booster to Sri Lanka for the win veteran Angelo Mathews is also doing good after his comeback in this format and most chances he could be important for them in coming world cup as well.
Sri Lankan batsmen batted very well. Although opener Fernando did not do well, Kusal Mendis and Samarawicrama batted well. Kusal mendis scored 59 runs and Samarawicrama scored 61 runs. Also Charith Asalanka is playing an innings requiring 44 runs off just 21 balls. Bangladeshi bowlers bowling was very bad. They gave 19 runs extra. The Bangladeshi bowlers could have stopped the Sri Lankan team within 190 if they could do some controlled bowling.
However, the performance of the Bangladeshi bowlers as well as the Bangladeshi top order batsmen was as usual poor. The performances of the top order players of this team have always been erratic. Bangladesh management can not solve this problem yet. Liton , Soumyo ,Shanto or hridoy no one's performance is regular.
Bangladesh is also doing good with these youngsters, and they need experience which will give them chance of improvement and quality will surely bring good results in coming years, hopefully selectors will keep faith and give them more chances.
Two young players Jaker Ali and Mehedi played quite well today. Bangladesh management should give more opportunities to these two young players. Bangladesh team will become stronger in the future if the young players become experienced. Also Towhid Hridoy should be given a chance. He has performed well in BPL.