An incredible century by skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanta, along with a blistering fifty by veteran Mushfiqur Rahim, defeated the Lankan lions. Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first at Chattogram's Zahoor Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. They piled up 255 runs on the scoreboard before being bowled out in 48.5 overs with a pair of fifties by Janith Lienage and Kushal Mendis. For the visitors, the team's maximum 67 runs came from Lianag's bat. Captain Mendis scored 59 runs.
Bangladesh pacers Tanjim Shakib, Taskin Ahmed and Shariful Islam shared 9 of the opposition's 10 wickets, performing as a great pace bowling unit; all three of them took three wickets each.
Looking at the target of 256 runs, no one should be disappointed. In today's context of ODIs, it is not an exaggeration to call this target simple. However, Bangladesh lost its breath in the beginning to chase this run. The hosts lost three top-order batsmen Liton, Soumy and Hriday to score 23 runs.
Mahmudullah Riyad's 62-ball 69-run partnership with skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanta led Bangladesh to move towards the target. But Mahmudullah stopped at 37 runs while going too hard.
Shanta continued to fight with experienced Mushfiqur Rahim. The 'Captains' knocked 53 and got a personal half-century. He spent another 55 balls to turn his fifty into a century. Mushfiqur Rahim, who saw Shanta's brilliant century from the other end, was not far behind. This burnt cricketer left the field only after reaching the port of victory in a responsible fifty.
Shanta's 129-ball match-winning innings of 122* included 13 fours and two sixes. On the other hand, Mushfiq played an effective innings of 73* runs in 8 fours.
Bangladesh was in some trouble after losing four of the last four ODI series at home. Shanta and his compatriots has a bird's eye view of this series against Sri Lanka. The red-green representatives successfully passed the first step of that goal