There is much to learn from both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, two South Asian countries, as they navigate their shifting landscapes.
The Sri Lanka team pulled out a ‘timed out’ celebration following their 28-run series-winning victory against Bangladesh in the third and final T20I at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Saturday. The visitors celebrated by pointing their fingers on their wrists referring to Angelo Matthews’ timed out dismissal against Bangladesh in the 2023 World Cup in India. Bangladesh-Sri Lanka encounters have brought out feisty contests in the recent past and tensions spilled over on Saturday as well when Towhid Hridoy got into an altercation with the Sri Lanka team after his dismissal.
Dhaka and Colombo sign one agreement and 13 memorandums of understanding (MoU) to boost up cooperation between the two countries in the areas of economy, agriculture, shipping, higher education, information and technology and media.
Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Mortaza expresses that he would have been more satisfied had his team won the one-day series 2-0 against Sri Lanka after the Tigers arrived home from a month-long series today.
As successful as this tour of Sri Lanka by the Bangladesh cricket team has been, it has also been one marred by off-field controversies and more than a little cloak-and-dagger.
With the gloom surrounding Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's retirement from T20Is hanging over today's second T20I against Sri Lanka, the man took it upon himself to ensure that it does not overshadow the match and that it inspires the team to come up with a rare T20I win to leave Sri Lanka with squared series in all formats of the game.
Three stats dominate the discussion before Bangladesh and Sri Lanka lock horns in the first of two T20Is at the R Premadasa International Stadium in Colombo tonight at 7:30pm (Bangladesh time).
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews will miss the remaining fixtures of Bangladesh's tour after being ruled out of the Twenty20 matches starting in Colombo on Tuesday.
Speaking with the shady benefit of hindsight may not be the most honest thing to do, but it will be even more disingenuous to deny that the status of Bangladesh's ODI progress hinged to a large extent on the result of the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo, which they lost by 70 runs on Saturday.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza expressed satisfaction after his first competitive game at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium yesterday since recovering from a thumb injury.
As recently as the Galle Test match that started on March 7, Dinesh Chandimal was in trouble having gone eight innings without a half-century, a streak he broke in the second innings of the aforementioned Test.
After an ending like yesterday's, when Bangladesh lost three wickets inside the last four overs to hand the initiative back to the Sri Lankans, one can imagine the dressing room full of people at sixes and sevens trying to convince someone to come out to the press conference and provide an explanation for the events.
Three wickets for six runs in seven balls. That was enough to undo all the hard work that Bangladesh had done for most of the first two days to get into the driving seat in their 100th Test match, the second of a two-Test series against Sri Lanka that Bangladesh trail 0-1.
Bangladesh trailed Sri Lanka by 124 runs with five wickets remaining in their first innings when the umpire called stumps on day-2 of the second Test of the series at Colombo’s P Sara Oval today.
In the 11th over of the innings Mustafizur Rahman appeared to beat Upul Tharanga's slash outside off stump and the ball sailed through to keeper and captain Mushfiqur Rahim.
