By Srian Obeyesekere

PREVIEW

As the decisive must win third and final T20 shifts from the hill climes of Pallekelle and, Dambulla to Colombo’s R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium on a 1-all even keel, Bangladesh’s Litton Das led rehashed team has by and large bounced back to giving Charith Asalanka’s charges a scare by the very all-round compelling cricket fare dished out to inflicting a heavy defeat at Dambulla despite the fact that the Lankans would be in their more fancied backyard where they have a good win record.

The Lankans will be thus pressed to addressing an altogether new look Bangladesh outfit where the danger men are mainly the pace-spin combinations of quicks Shoriful Islam and Mohammed Saifuddin who teamed up with Rishad Hossain, the 3-wicket destructive leg spinner who broke the back of the Lankan batting at Dambulla.

Bangladesh owe their change of fortunes overly to wicket-keeper batsman who has been conspicuously a changed entity carrying the captaincy mantle calling the shots from leading from the front with the bat by his cameo 76 which was center piece to victory in evening up to getting his bowlers moving.

While the disappointing batting display in the 84-run loss must serve as an eye opener to the Lankan think tank, its high time the rest of the recognised batsmen with the exception of skipper Charith Asalanka and Pathum Nissanka who have been match winners with the bat to come good instead of passing on the responsibility of shouldering the batting to Kusal Mendis. Of course the pinch hitting former captain Dasun Shanaka could well make a difference opening the batting where the best in him could be maximised than lower down the order.