Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam and Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Mendis were involved in a verbal altercation during the third and final ODI on Friday.
During the 17th over of the Sri Lankan innings in the first half, the heated exchange was observed where Shoriful tried to get under Mendis’ skin after he deceived the batsman with an off-cutter.
The bowler went near the batsman and gave him a mouthful, to which the latter also didn’t hold back and responded without mincing his words. The situation, though, was thankfully not allowed to deteriorate any further.
As it often happens when players lose focus after such instances of sledging, both Shoriful and Mendis didn’t have the best outings. While Shoriful proved to be the most expensive Bangladeshi bowler on show with a spell of 1/56 off his 8 overs, Mendis was dismissed for a modest individual score of 22 off 36 deliveries.
The game saw Sri Lanka come out victorious by a healthy margin of 97 runs, with skipper Kusal Perera and paceman Dushmantha Chameera producing stand-out performances. Perera made a responsible century (120 off 122 balls) to set up Sri Lanka’s score of 286/6 in the first half before Chameera’s fantastic five-fer (5/16) broke the back of Bangladesh batting.
The Sri Lankans managed to finally get on board in the ongoing ICC Super League, which determines direct qualification spots for the 2023 World Cup in India.
But they still lost the three-match series 2-1, having tasted defeats in the first two one-dayers at the Shere Bangla on May 23rd and 25th, respectively.
Bangladesh are now on top of the ICC Super League points table, with five wins from nine matches and have begun nicely in their quest to make the next 50-over World Cup.
