Internet Desk : A match winning innings of 80 runs from Sabbir Rahman scripted Bangladesh’s first win over Sri Lanka in T20 at Mirpur on Sunday. Rahman scored half of his teams score to lay a solid platform for his bowlers to do the finishing act. Bangladesh won the match by 23 runs, thereby keeping their hopes alive in the Asia Cup.
Sabbir stroked a powerful 80 off 54 balls that included 10 hits to the fence and three towering sixes. He was ably supported by Shakib who scored 32 valuable runs to post a competitive total of 147 runs. Earlier Moshraffe Mortaza won the toss and elected to bat first . It was another failure for the Bangladeshi openers as both Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Mithun did not trouble the scorers. Mushfiqur Rahim also did not last long as he ran himself out after scoring only 4 runs. The hosts were in deep trouble at 26/3. But a match winning partnership of 82 runs between Rahman and Shakib along with some late order hitting by Mahmudullah saw the hosts reach 147/7 in 20 overs.
On a pitch devoid of any grass, Bangladesh bowlers defended the total with some tight and accurate bowling led by Al Amin Hossain. Shakib and Mustafizur Rahman bowled eight overs between them for just 40 runs, taking three wickets while Al-Amin Hossain finished with 3 for 34.
Dinesh Chandimal surviving a missed chance in the first over did not capitalize as he managed only 37 runs. None of the other Lankan batsman offered any resistance thereby handing the hosts their first ever win.
Sri Lanka was dealt a blow as skipper Lasith Malinga had to sit out owing a niggle . He was replaced by Thisara Perera .