Malinga bang on target on return
Following his return, right-arm paceman Lasith Malinga immediately made his mark in the very first over he bowled against Bangladesh in the first T20I on Tuesday. He shattered the defence of opening batsman Tamim Iqbal in the second ball of the game. Malinga was not part of the three-match ODI series against the Tigers and played his last competitive match on February 22 this year. But the man with the slinging bowling action wasted very little time in making an impact. He was superb in his first over. The delivery that got rid of Tamim was full and swung back in the air towards the leg stump. It was closer to the feet so Tamim was beaten for pace too. Tamim struggled to get his feet out of the way and the ball sneaked between his bat and pads before uprooting the middle and leg stump. Malinga though missed an easy chance to account for the dismissal of Soumya Sarkar in the same over which could have been a dream start for the Lankans.Mahmudullah, Mosaddek rebuild
After an aggressive start provided by Soumya and Sabbir Rahman, Bangladesh were struggling a little bit at one stage as the scoreboard read 82 runs for the loss of five wickets. And there were still nine overs left in the innings. From that point, Mahmudullah and Mosaddek Hossain batted beautifully and formed a valuable 57-run partnership off 42 balls. These two batsmen gave an indication that T20 cricket is not only about power hitting and blasting the ball out of the park but also about batting responsibly, taking ones and twos and hammering boundaries off bad deliveries. Bangladesh eventually scored 155/6 in 20 overs. If Bangladesh had not lost quick wickets in the middle stages, then the score could have been around 180. Mahmudullah made 31 off 26 balls while Mosaddek remained not out on 34 off 30 deliveries.Fizz still not in full rhythm
Paceman Mustafizur Rahman has been struggling in the limited-over formats in the tour of Sri Lanka and it continued in the first T20I as well. Mustafizur started his international career brilliantly and his main bowling weapon was his variation. But after the shoulder surgery in late 2016, the left-armer has not yet recovered his rhythm fully. In the context of the game, conceding 24 runs without success in three overs is not so bad but it seems like the opposition batsmen are reading Mustafizur quite easily.
