Bangladesh squandered a golden opportunity to defeat Sri Lanka in the T20 series for the first time. Nazmul Hossain Shanto's team ended the series losing by 28 runs due to the failure of the team's top batsmen. Losing 6 wickets for 32 runs, the margin of loss of Bangladesh was not big in Rishad's fighting fifty. Playing for the first time on the soil of Bangladesh, Nuan Tushara single-handedly crushed Hriday-Riyadh with five wickets.
After losing the toss Sri Lanka got a challenging score from Kushal Mendis' batting. Kushal played an excellent innings of 86 runs with four sixes and sixes off 55 balls. With this, Sri Lanka's capital swelled in the small innings of the rest of the batters, they stopped at 174 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs. Taskin Ahmed and Rishad Hossain got maximum two wickets each for Bangladesh.
At the beginning of answering, the sky was collapsing on the head of the Bangladesh team! Bangladesh lost Liton Das in the third over. In the next over bowled by Nuan Tushar, Bangladesh saw an impossible task before them. This bowler completed the hat-trick by picking off skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Tawhid Hriday and Mahmudullah Riyad in three consecutive balls. Tushara became the fifth Sri Lankan bowler to take a hat-trick in T20Is.
Mahmudullah was trapped leg before after crushing the calm and hearty stumps. After losing 4 wickets for 15 runs, Bangladesh was knocked out of the match. Coming to his next over, the pacer also blew the stumps of Soumya Sarkar (11).
Zaker Ali, who announced himself in international cricket with this series, has failed to shine today. The young batsman was trapped leg before by Lankan captain Wanindu Hasaranga. Losing all the recognized batsmen of the team of 32 runs, Bangladesh is afraid of being all out for the lowest run in their T20 history.
The two tail row batsmen Sheikh Mehedi Hasan and Rishad Hossain removed the fear by making a pair of 44 runs in the seventh wicket. The Lankan bowlers were a bit complacent after picking up 6 wickets of Bangladesh in a short run. They took that opportunity and settled down at the crease.
Mehdi scored 19 runs and broke this pair after being bowled by Hasaranga. But Rishad's bat is an open sword! He took the first fifty of his career by hitting 7 sixes in 26 balls. But what else could Rishad do alone on the day of such a failure of the team's 'core' batters! Rishad stopped for 53 runs off 30 balls when Samaravikrama was caught in the palm of Mahesh Tikshana's ball.
In the end, Tushara took the wicket of Shariful Islam and got his first five-wicket haul in his T20 career. In the end, Bangladesh were bowled out for 146 runs in 19.4 overs.
After losing the T20 series 2-1, Bangladesh now turn their attention to ODIs. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will meet in the first ODI of the three-match series in Chattogram on March 13.