“Safe to say it was a world class performance”: Mahela Jayawardene validates Sri Lanka’s performance vs Bangladesh in Asia Cup 2022

Mahela Jayawardene validates Sri Lanka’s performance: The former Sri Lankan captain enjoyed a fantastic fightback at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Sri Lanka have become the third team to cement a spot for Asia Cup 2022 Super 4 joining the likes of Afghanistan and India. The winner of Pakistan vs Hong Kong tonight will determine the fourth team to qualify for the second round of the ongoing 15th edition of Asia Cup.

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 2 wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium last night to add another episode to a developing rivalry between these two teams. Doing justice to the war of words which had begun in the build-up to this match, both the teams remained in the contest until the last over.

Needing eight runs in the last over to seal a 184-run chase, Sri Lanka benefited from pacer Asitha Fernando hitting a boundary off a Mahedi Hasan no-ball in the absence of specialist batters.

In spite of being reduced to 77/4 in the ninth over, Sri Lanka managed to stay afloat in the chase on the back of wicket-keeper batter Kusal Mendis scoring 60 (37) comprising of four fours and three sixes. Dropped catch, dismissed off a no-ball, opposition not reviewing an out dismissal and missed run-out assisted Mendis to a tee powering him to a fourth Player of the Match award for a seventh T20I half-century.

Captain Dasun Shanaka (45), too, contributed with an impact-generating knock in a riveting encounter.

Mahela Jayawardene validates Sri Lanka’s performance vs Bangladesh in Asia Cup 2022

Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was understandably rejoiced taking to social media platform Twitter to laud the boys for a “fantastic fight back” resulting in a “world-class performance”.

Jayawardene’s selection of certain words came in wake of a pre-match controversy which added to the excitement for this virtual knockout match. Former Bangladesh captain and current Team Director Khaled Mahmud pointing out at the lack of world-class bowlers in this Sri Lankan squad had irked Jayawardene before the match.