Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 21 runs in their Super Fours encounter of Asia Cup 2023 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday. While Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field first and appeared to have a great hold on to the game, it was Sadeera Samarawickrama’s innings really that made the difference in their batting innings.

The right-handed batter first absorbed the pressure batting at a critical juncture but then took the attack to the opposition, getting out only on the last ball of the innings after scoring 93 off 72. Contributions from wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis 50 and and opener Pathum Nissanka 40 meant they were able to post what eventually turned to be a match-winning total of 257/9.

For Bangladesh, their pace attack delivered but they leaked a few runs extra than they would have liked at the death over. Shoriful Islam finished with figures of 2 for 48 while Taskin Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud scalped 3 wickets apiece giving away 62 and 57 runs respectively. In the run chase, Towhid Hridoy shone with his courageous 82 and while he was there in the middle with Musfiqur Rahim 29, it looked like Bangladesh had a good chance of winning but once Sri Lanka broke through, there was no looking back.

Captain Dasun Shanaka was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka finishing with figures of 3 for 28. Maheesh Theekshana also picked 3 wickets and so did Matheesha Pathirana, conceding 69 and 58 runs respectively. This was Bangladesh’s second defeat in a row in the Super Four stage as they had lost their first match of this round against Pakistan. They will now meet India in their final Super Four match.

Sri Lanka too are yet to take on India in this round. The Rohit Sharma-led side, meanwhile, haven’t played a match yet in the Super Fours and will take on Pakistan in Colombo on Sunday (September 10).