Sri Lanka‘s clinical performance earned them another easy victory over Bangladesh. 238 is not an adequate score in modern cricket and Sri Lanka toppled it with 32 balls to spare. There were amazing things happened in Premadasa. Lots of viewers came out from the gallery before the match even ended! Yes, Bangladesh made the game such one-sided. The batting line-up, especially opening partnership was such poor. But, wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim refused to blame the poor opening partnership for Bangladesh’s bad form.

Mushfiqur Rahim refused to blame poor opening partnership for Bangladesh’s bad form: BAN vs SL Press Conference

Bangladesh is becoming an inapt team day by day in terms of every department. No Shakib Al Hasan, no party for them. The opening partnership of Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar is one of the biggest reasons. Both have been poor since the World Cup. Except for Mushfiqur, no one’s been consistent. Mushfiqur Rahim rules out to blame the opening partnership for this demise.

Nobody does too bad in the World Cup. Our openers did well. They started with a positive attitude but they failed to carry their innings long. We are hoping to do good in the next game. Openers won’t always give us a good start. They can fail too and they’re definitely trying. I hope Tamim will do good in his next game.

Tamim Iqbal bemoaned their bad luck although they won the toss.

We won the important toss but failed to take advantage. The pitch was spin-friendly and that’s why we took another spinner. We needed to post a big score but losing four wickets early didn’t help. We needed to score at least 260 runs. The way we bowled, 300 wouldn’t be enough though.

This picture is telling the overall scenario of Bangladesh
This picture is telling the overall scenario of Bangladesh

Winning skipper Dimuth Karunaratne is happy that his team wins a series after a long time.

It was a good game. We win a series after a long time. The game against Bangladesh was challenging and we did it with a good attitude. We wanted to bat first because of the slow pitch. But, our bowlers really did a good job. It’s so unfortunate Avishka didn’t get the hundred. Hope, he will get it in the future.

The “Man of the Match” Avishka Fernando expressed his happiness for the win but also disappointed to not get the century.

I’m always happy to bat at any position. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m disappointed not to get the century. I am hoping to convert my stats into bigger knocks in the future.

The right-handed expounds his wish.

Dimuth Karunaratne got his ODI captaincy before the ICC World Cup 2019 and did a good job considering the team’s strength. Sri Lanka also wins the first tournament after a long time under his leadership. On the other hand, the condition of Bangladesh is so poor. The absence of Shakib Al Hasan has been so clear for them. They need to fix the problem and learn to cope without their star player.