Talismanic Dilshan grinds off-color Bangladesh

An all-round performance from Tillakaratne Dilshan saw Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 126 runs and grab the bonus point.

After electing to bat first, the Sri Lankan openers got the side to a flier as Tillakaratne Dilshan tore the bowling apart right from the word go. They put up 82/0 in the Quick Start Overs and notched up an impressive Quick Start Batting Index of 197 while the Quick Start Bowling Index of the Bangladesh side suffered a blow falling down to a value of -107. The openers put up a solid 111-run stand for the first wicket. Even after their departure of the openers, the Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena continued the good work and kept the score-board ticking continuously. The three top-order batsmen - Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara scored handsome half-centuries. Towards the latter part of the innings, Chamara Kapugedara and Angelo Mathews put up a sensible partnership and helped put up 312 from the 50 overs. They scored 70/0 in the Extreme Performance Overs which lifted their Extreme Performance Batting Index to a value of 119. The Power Play 2 and Power Play 3 performance values were impressive too with values of 94 and 70 respectively. The overall Batting Momentum of the Sri Lankan side rose exponentially to 449 while the Bowling Efficiency of the Bangladesh unit remained stunted at 113. Tillakaratne Dilshan was the top-scorer(71 off just 51 balls) and ended up with a Batting Momentum of 127. Shafiul Islam’s two-wicket haul saw his Bowling Efficiency rise to 102.

Chasing a target of 313, Tamim Iqbal struck Nuwan Kulasekara for three boundaries off the first three balls of the second innings. His partner Imrul Kayes was dismissed cheaply today but Zunaed Siddique, playing in the side today, put up 57 for the 2nd wicket with Tamim Iqbal. Bangladesh scored an impressive 62/1 from their Quick Start Overs which helped the Quick Start Batting Index to a value of 72 and keeping the Sri Lankan Quick Start Bowling Index to a value of just 18. Things were on track till Siddique was dismissed  followed by Tamim Iqbal’s wicket not before he got to his half-century. His wicket triggered a collapse and the Bangladeshis lost wickets regularly. Finally, not withstanding the force from the Sri Lankan bowlers, Bangladesh were shot down for 186 from 40.2 overs. A late flurry by Mortaza during their Power Play 3, helped them achieve a decent value of 74 for the Power Play 3 Performance. The loss by 126 runs crippled their overall Batting Momentum to just 217 compared to 449 for the Sri Lankans. The Sri Lankan Bowling Efficieny was again impressive at 276 compared to 113 of the Bangladeshi side. Tamim Iqbal was the top-scorer of the innings and had a Batting Momentum 70. Tillakaratne Dilshan was the pick of the bowlers, picking up 3 wickets and possessed a Bowling Efficiency of 243.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was the vociferous choice for the Man of the Match award.