🏏Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka : Super 4 Match 2, Asia Cup 2023 at 3PM🏏

🏏Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka : Super 4 Match 2, Asia Cup 2023 at 3PM🏏

Sri Lanka (SL) will be up against Bangladesh (BAN) in the Super 4, 2nd match of the Asia Cup 2023, at the R Premdasa Stadium in Colombo TODAY.

Sri Lanka has played two games in the league stage, where they won both and were at the top of the table in Group A.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, played a match in the Super Four stage, which they lost against Pakistan.

Sri Lanka had squared off against Afghanistan in their last match, where Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat.

Sri Lanka started well with a good opening partnership of 63 runs. It was followed by a couple of other good partnerships as well. There was a mini-collapse in the middle, but the lower order did a great job as they posted a strong total of 291 runs on the board.

Afghanistan lost their openers cheaply, but the middle order was fantastic to put them in the driving seat. However, they kept losing wickets regularly, which hurt them in the end, as they fell short of the target by just two runs and were bowled out.

Bangladesh had played against Pakistan in their last match, where Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat. Bangladesh could not make the most of the batting track they had on offer, as they lost the top order cheaply.

It wasn't until the fifth wicket that they had a decent partnership. A couple of good knocks from Shakib and Rahim helped them post a total of 193 runs on the board. Pakistan did not face too much of a challenge in chasing such a total down.

The ACC, after deciding to shift the Super 4 matches to Hambantota, made a U-turn on their decision by keeping Colombo as the hosts of the remaining games of the tournament, including the final.

Bangladesh will be missing the services of Najmul Hossain Shanto for the rest of the tournament due to a hamstring injury. He is the highest scorer of the tournament so far, with 193 runs at an average of 96.50. Litton Das played in the previous match for Bangladesh and is available for selection in this match as well.

The Bangladeshi batting line-up has not stood up against the top quality of Pakistan and Sri Lanka previously.

They were bowled out for just 164 in their previous match against Sri Lanka, and against Pakistan in their previous Super 4 match, they managed to score just 194. Their batters need to give the bowlers a respectable target to defend.

Sri Lanka are one victory away from the second-longest winning streak in ODIs

Sri Lanka in sight of 13th successive win

Sri Lanka are one win away from ODI eminence. If they beat Bangladesh in their Asia Cup Super Four game today, they will become the team with the second-longest winning streak in the format. Only the Australians of 2003 achieved a longer streak (21), while Sri Lanka are currently tied with Pakistan (12 wins in 2007-08) and South Africa (12 wins in 2005, and again in 2016-17).

As is bound to be the case in such situations, Sri Lanka has found the fight in tricky situations. And, despite all the talk about Afghanistan's valiant fight in their group-stage game, Sri Lanka were more aware of the game situation, and the playing conditions, and that proved to be the clincher.

That awareness is something that sometimes goes AWOL in Bangladesh. They were outplayed by Sri Lanka following a lackluster effort early on in the tournament. They bounced back to beat Afghanistan so impressively that they didn't have to worry about the net run rate for qualification to the Super Four stage. But then Pakistan totally outplayed them on Wednesday.

Shakib Al Hasan called the batting "hot and cold", which is a cause for concern. As is the lack of awareness. Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim rebuilt Bangladesh's batting from 47 for 4, but got out to poor shots. What should also worry Bangladesh is the speed with which their lower order collapsed, not for the first time.

Probability of Playing 11

Bangladesh may not change their playing 11, but are likely to shuffle their batting line-up, starting with Litton Das moving to open with Mohammad Naim. Mehidy Hasan Miraz could be sent to No. 8 to give the other specialist batters more time and responsibility.

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Mohammad Naim, 2 Litton Das, 3 Afif Hossain, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Towhid Hridoy, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Shamim Hossain, 8 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Shoriful Islam, 11 Hasan Mahmud

Sri Lanka will be expected to continue with the same XI that beat Afghanistan in their last group game. They have Kusal Perera, Dushan Hemantha, Binura Fernando and Pramod Madushan on the bench.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Charith Asalanka, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 8 Dunith Wellalage, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Kasun Rajitha, 11 Matheesha Pathirana

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Last five completed ODIs, most recent

Bangladesh LWLWL

Sri Lanka WWWWW

In the spotlight - Dasun Shanaka and Mushfiqur Rahim

Dasun Shanaka is going through a strange 2023. While leading Sri Lanka to 12 wins in a row, he has averaged 7.71 in eight innings. Granted, he bats down the order, but in the six months before the winning run started, Shanaka's 169 runs at 33.80 were actually Sri Lanka's second-best in that period behind Pathum Nissanka.

Mushfiqur Rahim's strong form in 2023 is a bounce back after an under-par average of 23 last year. He apparently almost lost his place in the team, but a move to No. 6 has helped, as he has taken on the finisher's role. Mushfiqur has averaged 57.25 while scoring 458 runs in his last ten innings, including Bangladesh's fastest ODI century.

Pitch and conditions

The R Premadasa Stadium usually has slower and lower pitches than Pallekele. But in the last five years, the 267 at Premadasa is a higher average first-innings score in day-night ODIs than Pallekele's 255. The forecast, worryingly, suggests that there is more than a 68% chance of rain through the day (at the time of writing this).

Stats and trivia

• Sri Lanka's fast bowlers have been more dominant than their spinners against Bangladesh, with 41 wickets at 22.58 compared to 26 wickets at 30.50 in ODIs in the last five years.
• Mehidy is one of three players to score 500 runs and take 40 wickets across formats in the last 12 months. Shakib is one of the other two.
• Kusal Mendis is now the fifth-fastest Sri Lanka batter to reach 3000 runs in ODIs, behind Marvan Atapattu, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Perera and Mahela Jayawardene.

"Where Matheesha releases the ball is very different from others. It's something that many cricket teams cannot prepare for. That in itself is an advantage because you don't get to practice against that kind of bowler. Malinga was very successful, and I think Matheesha has a big future. His cricket knowledge will increase because of him playing the IPL."

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe on Sri Lankan bowler Matheesha Pathirana

R Premdasa Stadium offers a pitch that is quite favorable to batters in nature. Spinners, in particular, can do well on this track due to the turn and bounce on offer. Batters can exploit the batting nature of the pitch and score heavily. Teams winning the toss might choose to chase, with the average first innings total being 214.

40%

Pace Bowling

60%

Spin Bowling

50%

Batting Pitch

214

Average Score

49%

Bowling Pitch

What to expect: If we ignore the 80% chance of showers in Colombo, the track is typically sluggish to start with, before it flattens out and assists batsmen, but offers ample assistance to spinners too. However, with the rain coming into play, and a new venue that will host the next six matches, we might well see a slightly more unusual Colombo track, made to hold up for the last six games of the tournament.

Despite the two close encounters in the tournament, Sri Lanka haven't lost a match, and are likely to continue with the same XI in Colombo, unless forced by injury.

Despite the debacle against Pakistan in the Super 4s, Bangladesh is likely to back their XI. Mustafizur potentially returning after sitting out due to a knee niggle may be the only change in the Playing XI.

Bangladesh have had serious concerns regarding their batting, particularly outside of the experienced pair of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib al Hasan. Nazmul Shanto, who scored a hundred and an 89, was ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring niggle, which has seriously hurt Bangladesh's batting.

The bowling has shown a lot more potency and heart, but at this stage, a complete performance is the call of the hour, with consistency.

Sri Lanka have won both their matches. It's easy to be misled by this statement, until you take into account that they struggled to chase down a paltry total of 165 against Bangladesh, only managing to win it by five wickets. In the next game, they nearly allowed Afghanistan to get away with an improbable heist, only to deny them by 2 runs in the end - partially down to lack of information for the Afghanistan team.

With Afghanistan almost gunning down 292 in 37.1 overs, Sri Lanka's bowling is a concern, with only two bowlers going at less than 7 runs an over in the game against Afghanistan. The solidity of the top order was called into question in the chase against Bangladesh, but the batting, in general, has got the job done as a unit.