Asia Cup 2023: Dasun Shanaka glad to have contributed with ball as Sri Lanka sink Bangladesh in Super 4

Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka picked up three wickets in his team’s defence of 258 runs on Saturday, 9 September against Bangladesh. Sri Lanka defeated Bangladesh by 21 runs in the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup to pick up crucial points ahead their match against India.

Shanaka, Matheesha Pathirana, and Maheesh Theekshana picked up three wickets each in a tricky second innings where Bangladesh came really close to winning the ODI match. Sri Lanka, who do not have the services of several frontline bowlers in this tournament due to injuries brought up their 13th straight win in the ODI format.

Asia Cup 2023: Points Table

Speaking after the match, Shanaka said that he was happy with his and his team’s performance.

“Bangladesh bowlers bowled really well, especially Hasan Mahmud. So I thought if I hit the seam, it can work. And I delivered. When there’s no frontline bowlers, someone needs to chip in. Normally Kasun and Maheesh deliver at the top. But Maheesh delivered at the end. It’s matter of time, I have played good enough cricket to deliver. Kusal and Sadeera read the wicket really well and played accordingly,” Shanaka said after the match.

Sri Lanka scored 257 runs, courtesy of a superb 93 off 72 balls by Sadeera Samarawickrama, who negotiated the slow nature of the deck to help Sri Lanka reach a respectable total. The player of the match added runs with Kusal Mendis (50 off 73) and later Shanaka (24 off 32) to take Sri Lanka to a safe total. Sadeera spoke after the match and said that the idea was to take the game deep.

“W0hen I went to bat, wicket was not easy to bat on. My plan was to play my normal game and back myself. My plan was to play as late as possible. Was waiting for the ball to come to me, not go too far forward. I was trying to bat deep, plan was to get 250 for the team. Knew that wicket is going to play big part for spinners,” Sadeera said in the post match interview.

With the loss, Bangladesh are on the verge of getting knocked out of Asia Cup 2023.