Bangladesh recorded a morale-boosting win over Sri Lanka and revived their hopes of qualifying for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
The Tigers gunned down the Lankan Lions by three wickets at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi Monday.
Weather was a big concern ahead of the game as Delhi’s air pollution rose to severe category in the last few days.
But the sun came out Monday morning and air pollution was subdued as the match started in its scheduled time and tempers were raised between the two teams as Sri Lankan batter Angelo Mathews was adjudged “timed out” after Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan appealed to the umpire.
This was the first instance of such kind of dismissal in international cricket.
Bangladesh chased down the 280-run target with 53 balls remaining and now sit seventh in the points table with equal four points but better net run rate compared to Sri Lanka and the Netherlands.
Despite losing two wickets early, Bangladesh dominated the chase as Shakib and Nazmul Hossain Shanto formed an attacking partnership of 169 for the third wicket, and were cruising towards the win.
Shakib played a captain’s knock and scored 82 off 65 with 12 fours and two sixes while Shanto was brilliant at the other end as well with 90 off 101 with a dozen boundaries.
Although Bangladesh lost a few quick wickets in the end on verge of victory, they eventually reached the target well before the allotted overs which boosted their net run rate.
Shakib was adjudged player of the match for his all-round performance.
Earlier, Shakib won the toss and elected to field considering the dew factor in the evening.
Bangladesh made one change as right-arm pacer Tanzim Hasan got the nod for the first time in this World Cup in place of Mustafizur Rahman.
Tigers’ pacer Shoriful Islam made the first breakthrough straightaway as he took a wicket in the first over removing Kusal Perera (four).
Bangladesh picked up two more wickets within 15 overs to keep the opposition in check but a 63-run stand for the fourth wicket gave Sri Lanka some hope of posting a good total.
But Shakib gave an important breakthrough in the second ball of the 25th over as he bagged the wicket of well-set Sadeera Samarawickrama (41).
Then the famous incident happened that went into the history books as Mathews was given out “timed out”.
Mathews came to the crease within the time limit of two minutes.
But when he was fixing his helmet before facing the first delivery, the strap of his headgear was torn and immediately, he turned around and called for a new one.
And by the time the new helmet arrived on the field, Shakib and vice-captain Shanto went to the umpire and the Bangladesh skipper appealed officially for timed out dismissal.
Mathews looked surprised and later frustrated as the umpire called him timed out and the veteran batter was visibly angry while heading back towards the dressing room.
Sri Lanka were 134 for five at that moment and Charith Asalanka was batting well at the other end.
Asalanka registered his hundred in the late stage of the innings but Bangladesh bowlers grabbed wickets in regular intervals to halt Sri Lanka as the island nation were all out for 279 in 49.3 overs.
Tanzim notched three scalps while Shakib and Shoriful took two each.
38TH MATCH
Sri Lanka 279 in 49.3 overs (Asalanka 108, Tanzim 3/80) lost to Bangladesh 282/7 in 41.1 overs (Shanto 90, Shakib 82) by 3 wickets
