In a nail-biting encounter, Sri Lanka took 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series against Bangladesh by beating the latter in the first game by 3 runs on Monday at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
Winning the toss and deciding to bat, Sri Lanka, set the stage for an intense battle with opener Kusal Mendis hammering (59). Down the order, Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka remained unbeaten with their scores of (61) and (44) respectively, leading the team to an imposing total of 206/3 in (20) overs.
Bangladeshi bowlers Shoriful Islam and Mustafizur Rahman remained quite expensive, leaking (47) and (42) runs respectively and failing to restrict Sri Lanka for a moderate total.
In response, Bangladesh suffered the early collapse of their top-order batters with Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Soumya Sarkar being removed for (0), (12) and (20) respectively. Meanwhile, down the order, Mahmudullah and Jaker Ali led Bangladesh’s fightback with determination, playing their composed knocks of (54) and (68) respectively, but Sri Lanka kept the upper edge to lead the series 1-0. Sri Lankan bowlers Angelo Mathews, Binura Fernando and Dasun Shanaka returned with two wickets each to make their big contributions with the ball.