Bangladesh bowl out Sri Lanka for 263

Mahedi Hasan led the charge as the Bangladesh bowlers overcame a poor start to bowl out Sri Lanka to 263 in 49.1 overs in their first warm-up match ahead of the ICC World Cup 2023 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, India on Friday.

Off-spinner Mahedi finished with 3-36 while four other bowlers took one wicket each as the Tigers bundled out Sri Lanka for a below par total after the Lankans had gone off to a flying start.

Pathum Nissanka (68 off 64 balls) and Dhananjaya de Silva (55 off 79 balls) hit half-centuries but losing wickets at regular succession didn’t allow the islanders to launch in the final overs as they had to settle for a score lower than their expectations.

Batting first, openers Kusal Perera and Nissanka gave Sri Lanka a brilliant start, scoring 64 runs for the first wicket off 55 balls.

Perera looked the more destructive of the duo, having scored 34 runs off 24 deliveries. But the left-hander was struggling with some pain on his shoulders and decided to leave the field retired hurt.

But the scoring rate didn’t dip because of his departure as Nissanka and Kusal Mendis then added 40 runs of the next 33 balls. 19 of those runs came in the 14th over from Hasan Mahmud, where Nissanka hit a couple of fours and Mendis hit a six and a four.

Bangladesh got their first wicket in the match in the 15th over, when Nasum Ahmed dismissed Mendis (22), getting him caught at mid-on.

Mahedi then got into the action. The off-spinner claimed the next three wickets to fall to reduce Sri Lanka from 107-1 to 164-4 in 28.2 overs.

Skipper Dasun Shanaka looked woefully out of touch in his 17-ball stay which yielded only three runs before Shoriful Islam finally put him out of his misery in the 34th over.

Dhananjaya then formed a 41-run partnership with Dimuth Karunaratna, which pushed the total across 200.

Mahmudullah broke the stand by removing Karunaratna (18) with a direct hit.

Bangladesh’s stand-in skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz ended Dhananjaya’s innings in the 46th over. Lahiru Kumara (13 not out) hit a six and a four and Dushan Hemantha (11) hit one six to take Sri Lanka’s total beyond 250.

Earlier, Shakib Al Hasan was declared unavailable for the match after hurting his right ankle while playing football on Thursday.