Bangladesh has broken their losing streak as they defeated Sri Lanka as they defeated the Lankans by 3 wickets as the two teams met in Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium for the 38th match of ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023.
Before this match, both teams raised complaints about the extremely poor AQI index of Delhi. However, Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bowl. Charith Asalanka’s century (108 of 105 balls) helped Sri Lanka to reach 279 runs by losing all their wickets in 49.3 overs. Angelo Mathews became the first batsman to be deemed ‘timed out’ in international cricket. Mathews could not reach the crease in allotted 2 minutes after the dismissal of Sadeera Samarawickrama.
Bangladesh got to the target after losing 7 wickets in 41.1 overs. Najmul Hossain Shanto (90 of 101 balls) and Shakib Al Hasan (82 of 65 balls) had put Bangladesh’s chase in cruise control. But after their dismissal, they started to lose wickets in regular interval. Eventually, Towhid Hridoy (15 not out of 7 balls) and Tanzim Hasan Sakib (5 not out of 6 balls) steered the ship home for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan was awarded Player of the Match trophy for his all- round performance (2 for 57 with ball and 82 runs with bat).
He said in post- match interview, “When I won toss, didn’t have any hesitation to bowl. We’ve trained here and know there’s a lot of dew. It was a very good partnership, and would’ve loved to finish it off. One of our fielders came to me and said if you appeal now he’ll be out. Then I appealed and the umpires asked me if I’m serious or whether I am going to take it back. It’s in the laws. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong. I was at war and I had to take a decision to make sure my team wins. Right or wrong, there will be debates but if it is in the rules I don’t mind taking those chances. That (altercation with Mathews) helped, bit more fight, I’m 36 and normally fight doesn’t come easily but happy it did today.”
With this lose, Sri Lanka is officially eliminated from the tournament and Bangladesh moved to 7th place. Bangladesh had already been eliminated from the tournament.
