SYLHET, Bangladesh: Kusal Mendis joked about how Kusal Perera will get back into the Sri Lanka side after he made the most of an injury to his teammate to win the man of the match and the man of the series award against Bangladesh.
Perera was ruled out of the two Twenty20 internationals with a side strain, presenting an opportunity for Mendis to shine. He only had a top score of 22 from eight previous innings in the format but he scored 53 in Dhaka and then 70 on Sunday as Sri Lanka thrashed Bangladesh by 75 runs to complete a 2-0 series sweep on Sunday.
“Although I got only 83 runs in the ODIs, I trained very hard and worked very hard with the coaches to continue with my normal game,” Mendis said. “Bowlers and batsmen both worked hard and executed their plans. Personally, I’m very happy to win this for the team. Not sure how Kusal Perera will come back, but I’m sure he’ll find a way back.”
Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal said he would welcome the selection headache. “It’s a tough call, how Kusal Perera comes back,” Chandimal said. “Mendis batted really well, we thought he can carry the bat through his innings, and he did. It’s been a really good series as a team. We lost the first two ODIs (to Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), really badly. We picked ourselves up after that. We didn’t play like a team, we played like a family. So finally results came through. 2017 was tough, so this is a really good start. Hope the boys do their best moving forward — we have a good combo of young and old.”
Sri Lanka looked a cohesive unit on Sunday. They rode on Mendis’ 70 off 42 deliveries to post 210-4 and then bowled out the hosts for 135 in Sylhet.
Skipper Mahmudullah Riyad top-scored for Bangladesh with 41 before being run out, with opener Tamim Iqbal making the only other meaningful contribution with 29.
Sri Lanka paceman Shehan Madushanka, who left the field with an injured hamstring after bowling just 2.1 overs, and off-spinner Danushka Gunathilaka claimed two wickets each.
But it was Mendis who once again stood out for the visitors with his second successive fifty of the series, as his 98-run stand with fellow opener Gunathilaka gave Sri Lanka a solid start after being put into bat first.
Mendis, who was named both man of the match and series, hit six fours and three sixes in reaching his T20 international career-best score, taking the attack to the opposition while Gunathilaka at the other end made a brisk 42.
Bangladesh dropped Gunathilaka twice on 15 and 28 and had to wait until the 11th over for their first success in the game.
Number three Thisara Perera chipped in with a quickfire 31. Upul Tharanga then hit 25, and Dasun Shanaka smashed an unbeaten 30 off 11 balls, to lift the score past the 200-run mark.
In reply, Bangladesh lost three early wickets for just 22 runs and never caught up with the ever-increasing required run-rate.
Apart from Tamim and Mahmudullah, Mohammad Saifuddin and Mahedi Hasan were the only other batsmen to manage double figures for the hosts, who were all out after 18.4 overs.
“It was a score that I felt we could chase, but for that we needed a good start,” said captain Mahmudullah. “But we kept losing wickets, didn’t get any momentum. And guess we didn’t bowl well too. The wicket was good to bat on — when the dew came in the batting was good too. Not much for the spinners either. If we would’ve stopped them at 180-odd, then we could’ve chased it down. We need to sit together ahead of the Nidahas trophy and figure out how we can chase 180, and how our bowlers can keep the damage low. Shakib [Al-Hasan] is a champion player, so yeah, we missed him with both ball and bat. Special congratulations to the SL team for how they played.”