2018 Asia Cup: Three things you might have missed in Bangladesh's innings against Sri Lanka

England v Bangladesh - ICC Champions Trophy
Mushfiqur's century helped Bangladesh score more than 260

Asia Cup 2018 is off to a fantastic start as Bangladesh ended up scoring in 261 in 49.3 overs, thanks to a well-made century from Mushfiqur Rahim and a fifty from Mohammad Mithun.

After Lasith Malinga picked up two early wickets to have Bangladesh tottering at 1/2 after the first over with their openers Liton Das, Tamim Iqbal (retired hurt) and Shakib-al-Hasan already back in the hit, Mushfiqur and Mithun pulled things back as they put on a 132-run partnership for the third wicket in just over 24 overs before Mithun's inexperience cost his wicket as he took on Malinga, who just came back to break the partnership.

He tried to hit the pacer out of the park and ended up skying the ball straight to the wicketkeeper Kusal Perera for 63. Experienced batsman Mahmudullah had a brain fade as he went for a wild shot off Aponso offering Dhananjaya de Silva a simple catch. 134/2 soon became 142/5 as Malinga had Mosaddek Hossain caught behind for just 1.

It was all on Mushfiqur to bat with the tail and take Bangladesh to a good total and the 31-year-old exactly did that as he stitched together a 33-run stand for the sixth wicket with Mehidy Hasan (15) and a 20-run stand with skipper Mashrafe Mortaza (11) and helped his team go past 200.

He brought up his sixth ODI century with a tickle down the legs for a boundary. He was the last man to be dismissed with a score of 144 off 150 balls with 11 fours and four sixes and helped his team set Sri Lanka a target of 230, which is a competitive score considering the Bangladeshi bowling unit.

For Sri Lanka, Lasith Malinga was the pick of the bowlers as he ended up with figures of 4/23 in his 10 overs. Let us take a look three things you might have missed in the Bangladesh innings.


Sri Lanka's brilliant strategy to dismiss Shakib al Hasan

It has been over one year since Lasith Malinga last played an international match and the right-arm quick came back to international cricket in style as he took two wickets in two balls in his first over in over 365 days.

First, he had Liton Das caught at slips with a brilliant outswinger before he foxed Bangladesh's star all-rounder Shakib-al-Hasan with a brilliant yorker. Shakib, before facing his first ball, took a look at the field that was set for him. There was a leg slip in place for the left-hander and with such a field placement, any batsman would have expected a short delivery.

The case is no different with Shakib but Malinga pulled off a double bluff and executed a perfect yorker that caught Shakib off-guard as the ball went through the massive gap between Shakib's bat and pad and uprooted the stumps.

Dropped catches help Bangladesh

Sri Lanka v Pakistan - ICC Champions Trophy
Sri Lankan fielders drop as many as three catches in
the Bangladesh
innings

Without a doubt, the Sri Lankan bowlers bowled really well at the start to restrict Bangladesh. But, the Bangladesh score could have been much lesser had the Sri Lankan fielders supported the good work done by the bowlers as there were as many as three dropped catches in the Bangladesh innings.

First, skipper Angelo Mathews dropped Mithun at mid-on in the fourth over of the innings when the batsman was batting on 1 and he went on to score 63. Five overs later, Mushfiqur, who was batting on 10, was dropped by Dilruwan Perera at square-leg before he got another reprieve in the 37th over when he was batting on 85 as the bowler Dhananjaya de Silva dropped a sitter off his own bowler.

Mushfiqur made the Lankans pay as he went on to score 144, his highest ODI score, and helped his team score 261.

Tamim Iqbal's brave efforts

Tamim is t
Tamim is treated by the physio after injuring his wrist

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal was taken to the hospital for scans after he was hit on his left wrist off the bowling of Suranga Lakmal in the second over of the match.

Batting on 1, Tamim was tested by a short of a length delivery and the batsman lined himself up to play a pull shot but ended up missing the ball completely. The ball hit him on the wrist and the southpaw was down in pain immediately and was treated by the physio. He was in clear discomfort, which was clearly evident by the reaction on his face and was taken off the pitch immediately before visiting a nearby hospital where it was confirmed that he has suffered a fractured wrist in his left hand.

With this, Tamim has been ruled out of the ongoing Asia Cup and his replacement will be named shortly. But, to everyone's surprise, he walked out to bat after Mustafizur Rahman was run out in a bid to support Mushfiqur Rahim scoring more runs for his team.

He was negating the balls and was holding one end up just by batting with his right hand, yes, only one hand. Tamim's lion-hearted efforts helped his team score 32 more runs towards the end.

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Edited by Srihari