Shawdesh desk:

Bangladesh made an impressive start to the ICC T20 World Cup as they registered a two-wicket victory over their Sri Lanka in a nail-biting encounter at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Friday.

The victory came at a moment when hardly anyone put a bet on Bangladesh following their poor performance before of the global event.

It was Bangladesh’s only second victory over higher ranked team in their T20 World Cup history since their win against West Indies in the inaugural edition in 2007.

Pacer Mustafizur Rahman bagged 3-17 while and leg-spinner Rishad Hossain picked up his career-best 3-22 as Sri Lanka racked up a mediocre 124-9.

Fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, who played his first game after recovering from the rib injury, grabbed 2-25, while another pacer, Tanzim Hasan Sakib took 1-24.

In reply, Bangladesh reached 125-8 in 19 overs, thanks to Towhid Hridoy’s 40 off 20 balls followed by Liton Das’ 36 off 38 balls.

Nuwan Thusara was the standout bowler for Sri Lanka, claiming 4-18.

With Bangladesh needing a paltry total, they found life difficult on the slow and low surface as they lost their top-order trio of Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, and the skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto for 0, 3, and 7 runs, respectively.

Soumya, who has been undergoing a lean patch for a long time, edged a simple catch to Wanindu Hasaranga from the bowling of Dhananjaya de Silva.

Opener Tanzid followed the steps of his fellow team-mate just after the over when Nuwan Thusra rattled his stumps.

Shanto, who seemed struggling, could stay on the crease for the next four overs before he gave a catch to Charith Asalanka by the same bowler after he combined 22 runs with Liton, which saw the Tigers reeling at 28-3 in 5.2 overs.

However, in the fourth wicket stand, Liton and Towhid shared a 63 off 38 balls to fight back and also to pull the Tigers close to one hundred run mark before the latter fell to Hasaranga.

Towhid, who batted at a strike rate of 200, smashed Hasaranga for three consecutive sixes to earn huge applaud from the gallery prior to his dismissal.

Liton, who was playing the anchor role from the other end and was also anticipated to finish the game, was trapped leg before by the same bowler, leaving the side 26 runs away from the victory.

However, the scenario got worse when Bangladesh lost three wickets inside 14 runs, which saw the dismissal of Shakib Al Hasan for eight and Rishad and Taskin for a duck each to bring the silence in the Tigers gallery as they were shortened to 113-8.

Then, it was Mahmudullah who broke the silence, smashing Dasun Shanaka for a six in his second delivery.

Then, banking on Mahmudllah’s unbeaten 16 off 13, Bangladesh reached the victory line with one over to spare. Tanzim stood on one run.

Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and put Sri Lanka into bat first in a slow-paced wicket. However, Sri Lanka made a brilliant start, with Pathum Nissanka whipping the Bangladesh bowlers bitterly.

Nissanka made highest 47 off 28 with seven fours and one six. However, Taskin drew the first blood, claiming Kusal Mendis for 10 who struck him for consecutive boundaries.

Mustafiz then joined the party to bring the Tigers back into the game, as he had Kamindu Mendis for four and Nissanka in his consecutive overs.

With Dhananjaya de Silva and Charith Asalanka giving Sri Lanka a ray of hope to regroup, Rishad came up as a party spoilerthat saw him take three wickets for just 22 runs.

Dhananjaya made 21 while Asalanka contributed 19.

Sri Lanka could never recover from the collapse as they lost wickets in clusters to be bowled out for a below-par total.