Sri Lanka put aside the news of the imminent retirement of stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene to post a thrilling five-run win over India in their first warm-up match at Mirpur on Monday. Lasith Malinga grabbed 4-30, including two wickets off the last balls of the innings, as India were all out for 148 runs in 20 overs in reply to Sri Lanka’s modest 153-6 on the decent Sher-e-Bangla pitch.
The win, which underlined Sri Lanka’s credentials as one of the favourites in the tournament, came through a collective performance as India made regular breakthroughs after winning the toss and opting to field.
Jayawardene, who announced his decision to quit International Twenty20 cricket after this tournament through the ICC’s twitter mirror campaign, top-scored with 30 off 20 balls, while Kusal Perera (21), Dinesh Chandimal (29) and Nuwan Kulasekara (21 not out) all made decent contributions.
Ravichandran Ashwin claimed 3-22 for India and then threatened to snatch the win from Sri Lanka’s grip with a cameo of 19 runs from 11 balls.
Needing 12 runs from the last over, Ashwin and Stuart Binny took five runs off the first two balls of Malinga’s final over before the run out of Binny changed the equation.
Malinga rose to the occasion to dismiss Ashwin and Amit Mishra with the last two balls to maintain Sri Lanka’s unbeaten status in Bangladesh in 2014.
Suresh Raina made 41 runs to lead India.
-With New Age input
