SI Cricket Talks
The Lions Conquer Bangladesh
Sri Lanka tour of Bangladesh 2024
Shazeen Ifamy
Sri Lanka’s all-format tour of Bangladesh was nothing short of fire! Tensions between the two teams were high and at times reached boiling points leading to high-action cricket! As a result, the tour provided us with top-tier aggressive cricket throughout the tour!
The tour started off with the three (3) match T20I series which kicked started with a thriller in the first T20I with Sri Lanka winning by a mere three (3) runs after setting Bangladesh 207 to win! The second T20I balanced out the highs of the first with Bangladesh securing a comfortable win by eight (8) wickets cahsing Sri Lankas’ 165. With the T20I series tied at one (1) each, the third and final T20I saw Sri Lanka batting first and posting Bangladesh a challenging total of 174 on the back of a brilliant 86 by Kusal Mendis. In reply to the target, Bangladesh started poorly thanks to a brilliant hat-trick by Nuwan Thushara and eventually fell short by 28 runs giving Sri Lanka the T20I series.
The T20I series followed the three (3) match One Day International (ODI) series in which Bangladesh started strongly by chasing Sri Lankas’ 255 with six (6) wickets to spare to take the first ODI. The second ODI saw Sri Lanka put up a brilliant batting display to chase down the 286 runs set by Bangladesh on the back of a well-constructed 114 runs by Pathum Nissanka. With the ODI series tied at one apiece similar to the T20I series, the pressure was on for both teams. The final ODI started with Bangladesh restricting Sri Lanka to 235 with a brilliant bowling effort, however, despite restricting Sri Lanka to a below-par total, the Bangladesh reply was shaky as they kept losing wickets but thanks to some attacking cricket made it over the line by four (4) wickets to take the ODI series.
The final leg of the all-format tour was the two-match test series and with each team having a trophy, Sri Lanka with the T20I series and Bangladesh with the ODI series, the pressure was on for both teams to take the honours. The series started in fine fashion in a well-fought first test match with Bangladesh striking early to reduce Sri Lanka to 57 for 5 after the Tigers chose to bowl first, however, with their backs against the wall, the Sri Lankan skipper Dhananjaya de Silva and his young comrade paired together for a 202 run partnership with them both getting 100s to get Sri Lanka out of trouble and post a first innings total of 280. After restricting Sri Lanka to 280, Bangladesh didn’t show up as the Lankan fast bowlers paired with each other to take 10 wickets and restrict Bangladesh to 188 giving the Lions a handy first-innings lead. In their second innings, Sri Lanka once again found themselves in trouble and once again Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis rescued Sri Lanka by scoring 100s yet again to set Bangladesh a target of 511 to win, a challenging task and faced with their challenge, the Bangladesh batters once again found themselves in trouble against the faster men of the Lankans as they were bowled out for 182 handing Sri Lanka a 328 runs victory with their fast bowlers taking all 20 wickets!
With an unassailable series lead in the bag, Sri Lanka after winning the toss and choosing to bat first made a dominant start to the second test by posting a massive 531 in their first innings. In reply, Bangladesh only scored 178 in their first innings with the Lankan fast bowlers once again taking majority of the wickets. With a massive first-innings lead in their hands, Sri Lanka decided to bat again and despite losing consistent wickets still posted 157 and declared setting Bangladesh 511 to win yet again. With the series on the line, Bangladesh produced a valid batting effort but the target was just to much on a difficult pitch and were eventually bowled out for 318 runs giving Sri Lanka a192 192-run win and valuable ICC World Test Championship points! Throughout the test series, the Lankan fast bowlers were the top performers and deserve a special mention for picking up 33 out of the 40 wickets Sri Lanka took!
Overall, this tour promised a close fight as in recent times Bangladesh pushed Sri Lanka and at times came out on top. However, this time around, Sri Lanka was the better team as they played aggressive cricket both with bat and ball to catch Bangladesh off-guard. Despite the defeats in the Test and T20I series, Bangladesh still fought and gave Sri Lanka well-fought contests. In conclusion, Sri Lanka simply dominated the tour to conquer Bangladesh and while at it found new talent!
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