A terrific century from Perera helped Sri Lanka bounce back strongly from their losses in the first two ODIs against Bangladesh and clinch a comprehensive victory in the final one-dayer in Dhaka on Friday.
Perera smashed 120 runs off 122 deliveries, his 6th ODI century and 1st since being appointed the 50-over captain recently, and aided Sri Lanka’s quest to get past Bangladesh and finally get on board in the ICC Super League after six matches.
The Sri Lankan captain’s measured knock featured 11 fours and 1 six as he allowed his team to post a strong total of 286/6 in their allotted 50 overs and set the visitors on the path to achieving a morale-boosting victory by 97 runs.
Perera, who was later awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ for exploits with the bat, confessed “we needed a win badly” after going down heavily in the first two games and thus losing the three-match series heading into the final match. During the post-match presentation ceremony, Perera said that he felt good to contribute to his team’s win and inspire their important turnaround.
“Once I get set, I like to bat deep. That’s why I batted like that (more calculated manner). I took my chances early, me and Gunathilaka.
But after that, we needed to get the big scores and that’s why I shifted gears.
Our bowling department did a really good job. Fielding was also good.
Only concern was the batting in the first two games. Got that corrected today.”
he said on his batting.
Perera and Danushka Gunathilaka, the fellow opening batsman who made a quickfire 39, set the game up for Sri Lanka with an 82-run first-wicket stand after the visitors opted to bat first upon winning the toss. Dhananjaya de Silva was Sri Lanka’s second-highest run-getter for the day after Perera with a fifty (55), albeit his innings didn’t proceed at a tempo usually associated with the lower middle-order batsman walking in at No.5.
While Perera was Sri Lanka’s stand-out performer in the first half, in the second, it was pacer Dushmantha Chameera who produced the goods for his team and took a five-fer, ending with stellar figures of 5/16 off his 9 overs. Chameera broke the back of Bangladesh’s batting and left them with no hope of reaching the difficult 287-run target. Taking confidence from Chameera’s exploits, Wanindu Hasaranga (2/33) and Ramesh Mendis (2/40) also contributed a couple of scalps each to their team’s cause.
For Bangladesh, although middle-order batsmen Mosaddek Hossain (51) and Mahmudullah (53) fought hard at their end and scored half-centuries, the hosts never recovered through their innings and were dismissed for a score of just 189 from their 42.3 overs of batting. The batting performance exposed some of Bangladesh’s longstanding issues, which they were able to cover up in the first two matches.
On the bowling front, young quick Taskin Ahmed continued his good form and picked up a four-fer (4/46) from his nine-over spell. But either side of Taskin, the Bangladeshi bowlers couldn’t retain their pressure and mental edge over the opposition batsmen. Bangladesh needed the likes of Mehidy Hasan (0/48), Mustafizur Rahman (0/47) and Shakib Al Hasan (0/48) to take wickets, not just go economical if they were to keep Sri Lanka down to a manageable total.
Despite the loss, Bangladesh maintained their top position in the ICC Super League points table, with five wins and 50 points from nine matches. Sri Lanka remained at 12th position in the 13-team league, with just one victory after six matches.
Brief scores
Sri Lanka 286/6 in 50 overs (Kusal Perera 120, Dhananjaya de Silva 55; Taskin Ahmed 4/46) beat Bangladesh 189/10 in 42.3 overs (Mahmudullah 53, Mosaddek Hossain 51; Dushmantha Chameera 5/16) by 97 runs.
