Matheesha Pathirana takes a four-wicket haul in the match against Bangladesh at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on August 31 and becomes the youngest Sri Lankan bowler to achieve the milestone.
Pathirana on his record-breaking 4 wicket haul
The second match of the Asia Cup 2023, between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka concluded with the victory of Sri Lanka with 5 wickets where the Matheesha Pathirana scalped four wickets for 32 runs.
Pathirana (20y 256d) surpassed Sri Lankan player Chaminda Vaas (20y 280d) who had a four-wicket haul in the match against Zimbabwe in 1994 with 4/20.
The match started with Bangladesh winning the toss and choosing to bat, where Mohammad Naim and Tanzid Hasan opened for Bangladesh while Rajitha opened for attach. the Bangladesh opener Mohammad Naim was sent out with 16 runs by Dhananjaya de Silva, while Tanzid Hasan was sent out with a duck by Theekshana.
Shanto came to the rescue as he scored 89 runs. After Shaikib’s dismissal with 5 runs, Towhid Hridoy joined Shanto and they had a partnership score of 59. With Towhid sent on 20 runs by Shanaka, the other batters could not withstand the bowling attacks of Sri Lanka.
Matheesha Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana were impressive with their bowling as they scalped 4 and 2 wickets respectively. By the end, Bangladesh was folded with 164 runs losing all wickets in 42.4 overs.
After the first innings, Pathirana said, Last I played ODIs in Qualifiers. “Took some experience and came here. Wicket was pretty dead in first half. That’s why I tried slower balls and other things. Very difficult to adjust to ODIs so soon after T20s. But I will manage it.”
Dasun Shanka, captain of Sri Lanka’s side applauded bowlers for their impressive performance against Bangladesh. He said, “The way bowlers executed, credit to them. Especially Theekshana up front, Dhananjaya, and Pathirana who’s bowling so well.”
After folding Bangladesh for 164 runs, Pathum Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne opened for Sri Lanka, while Taskin Ahmed opened a bowling attack. The opener Pathum Nissanka was sent out with 14 runs by Shoriful Islam in the 4th over of their innings.
Dimuth Karunarante was sent out with one run. After Kusal Mendis was sent out with 5 runs, Sadeera was impressive as he scored 54 runs and Charith scored an unbeaten 62 runs. With Dasun Shanaka’s 14* runs, Sri Lanka scored 165 runs losing 5 wickets on 39 overs.
Matheesha Pathirana was awarded player of the match. He said, “This is my first POTM for my country – really happy about that. T20 skills are good for death overs. That’s why I took my wickets with the slower balls. My action is unpredictable. It’s a good advantage for me.”
Sri Lanka will play their next match of the tournament against Afghanistan on September 5 at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
