 The third game of the Asia Cup will be played between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,
at the same venue, at Dambulla. Sri Lanka won a rather close first game against
Pakistan, and this means that a win in this game could almost make their passage
to the final a virtual certainty.
On the other hand, Bangladesh will play their first game against India and
based on that result, this one may or may not be a must-win game for them. So,
if Bangladesh are beaten by India, then, winning this game against Sri
Lanka will become very imperative, if they want to qualify for the final. If
they beat India, which seems to be a rather difficult proposition, they will
have another chance against Pakistan, but may not want to go down that road.
Click for Live Score Card of Sri Lanka Vs Bangladesh
Sri Lanka's win may have been an exciting one, but they have miles to go before
they can consider this as an excellent performance. For one, the middle-order
collapse was very much in line with their collapses that keep happening once
the likes of Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Dilshan are shown the door. Then again,
the spin bowling was hardly one that could dictate terms to the opposition -
thanks to Muthiah Muralitharan being carted all around the park.
That also means that the side will look to try out different things in this
game, but not at the expense of losing the game - because with an India game
after this, things could become tight for the Lankans too.
A word on Mahela Jayawardene's batting, which looked like it could do with
some calmness at the start of the innings, but later, flowered into something
nice. He could have easily gone on to make a big one, but for that error in
the decision making by the umpire.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, haven't had a pleasing time against Sri Lanka
in recent times. They may look to eradicate the memories of the past, and look
to get going in this tournament; but how will they tackle all the swing and
the seam from the Lankan duo of Nuwan Kulasekera and Chaminda Vaas is
to be seen.
Bangladesh will not go into the game as favourites, but will look to cause
an upset if they can get their batting right. Probably, they need to bat first,
put up a decently big enough total in the vicinity of 275 and then bowl at the
Lankans under lights.
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