Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 8 wickets

Sri Lanka thumped Bangladesh by eight wickets as they reached 180 for 2 after 38.5 overs during the first semifinal of the Emerging Teams Asia Cup against Sri Lanka at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong today.

Chasing 179, Sri Lanka were rocked early and were in a spot of bother at 2-15 inside five overs. However, the unbeaten third wicket stand of 165 in 207 balls between Charith Asalanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama took Sri Lanka home quite comfortably in the end.

Sadeera was 88 not out from 100 balls, and his match-winning knock contained 10 fours. Charith played second fiddle to Sadeera, but scored 83 from 121 balls. His unbeaten innings was punctuated with nine fours and a huge six.

Nayeem Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin picked up a wicket each.

Earlier, Bangladesh limped to 179 all out in 49.3 overs.

The eighth wicket stand of 53 in 72 balls between Mohammad Saifuddin and Abul Hasan Raju enabled Bangladesh to reach a decent total in the end. Nasir Hossain was the top-scorer with 39 from 59. Saif Hassan was out on 32 and Saifuddin’s 37 helped the hosts with some crucial runs late in their innings.

For Sri Lanka, Asitha Fernando was the outstanding performer with the ball with four wickets to his name. He took 4-32 in 10 overs. Five Sri Lankan bowlers picked up a wicket each to peg back Bangladesh.

The second string Bangladesh side were struggling at 123-7 after 37 overs.

The tail was fighting to put some sort total on the board after the home team were rocked by a Asitha Fernando hattrick in the seventh over of the match.

The right-arm pace bowler had opener Afif Hossain bowled for 8 with the first ball and then dismissed captain Mominul Haque for a duck before castling Nazmul Hossain to completing a brilliant hattrick. The three quick blows reduced Bangladesh from 20 for no loss to 20-3 from where they had never recovered.