Sabbir Rahman scored a tremendous 80 off 54 balls to lead Bangladesh to a challenging 147 for 7 against Sri Lanka in Match 5 of Asia Cup T20 2016 at Dhaka on Sunday. Angelo Mathews, captaining Sri Lanka in Lasith Malinga’s absence, opened bowling as well and struck with his second delivery. Mohammad Mithun, who scored a good 47 in Bangladesh’s last match against UAE, was trapped LBW for a two-ball duck. Sabbir walked in at No. 3 but soon saw the back of Soumya Sarkar, who hit one from Nuwan Kulasekara to Mathews for a 3-ball duck. Bangladesh were 2 for 2 at this point. Full Cricket Scorecard: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, Asia Cup T20 2016 Match 5 at Dhaka
Bangladesh were 6 for 2 at the end of the third over when Sabbir first showed a sign of things to come. He whacked Kulasekara for four, six, four, and four off the first four deliveries of the next over as Bangladesh suddenly gained momentum out of nowhere. It was short-lived though, as Mushfiqur Rahim was soon run out following a terrible mix-up with Sabbir. Bangladesh were now 26 for 3 at the stroke of the sixth over. Full Cricket Blog: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, Asia Cup T20 2016 Match 5 at Dhaka
Shakib Al Hasan came in at No. 5, and Sabbir finally found a partner to give him some company. Sabbir did not allow Mushfiqur’s dismissal to affect him, hitting Thisara Perera for three consecutive boundaries in the very next over. The introduction of Shehan Jayasuriya and Rangana Herath slowed down the scoring rate, as Bangladesh managed only 26 runs off the next six overs. Sabbir then targetted Jayasuriya in the 13th over. hitting a six to bring up his half-century and following it up with two boundaries all off consecutive deliveries.
Chameera finally brought an end to Sabbir’s innings for a tremendous 54-ball 80, but not before he hit 10 fours and 3 sixes. Sabbir’s dominance was so complete, he scored 80 off the 107 runs scored while he was in the middle. Shakib was soon out, top-edging an attempted pull after being done in by Dushmantha Chameera’s pace. He was out for 32 off 34 balls, a largely second-fiddle innings. Nurul Hossain was out for 2 off 5 balls, but Mahmudullah came in and scored some vital runs at the death as Bangladesh finished off with a defendable score.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh in 20 overs (Sabbir Rahman 80; Dushmantha Chameera 3 for 30) vs Sri Lanka.
(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek who loves cricket more than cricketers. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)
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