The Bangladeshi cricket team toured Sri Lanka for three One Day International cricket matches and two Test cricket matches in August and September 2005. The Bangladeshi team was coming off a moderately successful tour of England, as they had pushed Australia close in one ODI and beat them in another. However, they had still lost five out of six matches in the NatWest Series, both of the Test matches, and remained at the bottom of both the ICC Test Championship and ICC ODI Championship. The hosts Sri Lanka, meanwhile, were undefeated in home ODI tournaments since February 2004, and in home Test series since March 2004, both against top-ranked Australia. Their win in the Indian Oil Cup a month before this series saw them into second place in the ODI Championship, but they are only ranked sixth in Tests.
Squads
TestsODIs Marvan Atapattu (c) Russel Arnold (wk) Tillakaratne Dilshan Dilhara Fernando H. M. R. K. B. Herath Sanath Jayasuriya Mahela Jayawardene Shantha Kalavitigoda Farveez Maharoof Lasith Malinga Muttiah Muralitharan Thilan Samaraweera Kumar Sangakkara (wk) Chaminda Vaas Gayan Wijekoon Habibul Bashar (c) Abdur Razzak Aftab Ahmed Aminul Islam Jnr Enamul Haque Khaled Mahmud Khaled Mashud (wk) Javed Omar Manjural Islam Rana Mashrafe Mortaza Mohammad Ashraful Mohammad Rafique Nafees Iqbal Nazmul Hossain Rajin Saleh Tapash Baisya Tushar Imran Shahadat Hossain Shahriar Nafees Syed Rasel Marvan Atapattu (c) Russel Arnold Upul Chandana Tillakaratne Dilshan Dilhara Fernando Avishka Gunawardene Sanath Jayasuriya Mahela Jayawardene Dilhara Lokuhettige Farveez Maharoof Muttiah Muralitharan Thilan Samaraweera Kumar Sangakkara (wk) Upul Tharanga Chaminda Vaas Habibul Bashar (c) Abdur Razzak Aftab Ahmed Aminul Islam Jnr Khaled Mahmud Khaled Mashud (wk) Javed Omar Manjural Islam Rana Mashrafe Mortaza Mohammad Ashraful Mohammad Rafique Nazmul Hossain Rajin Saleh Tapash Baisya Tushar Imran Shahriar Nafees Syed Rasel
Scheduled matches 4 September: Third One-Day International, R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo 7–9 September: Warm-up two-innings match, Colts Cricket Club Ground, Colombo 12–16 September: First Test, R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo 20–24 September: Second Test, P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo
Matches played
Sri Lanka Cricket XI v Bangladesh, 28 August
Sri Lanka Cricket XI won by ten wickets
A slow start by openers Rajin Saleh and Javed Omar cost Bangladesh dearly in the warm-up match against a side of Sri Lankan fringe players at Moratuwa, along with an inability to take wickets. The pair added 59 for the first wicket, but never really got off the mark, and when Pradeep Jayaprakashdaran dismissed Omar and Aftab Ahmed in quick succession things started to look tricky. The other players were forced to make runs quickly, and two run outs followed as a result. In the end, it was the experienced all-rounders Mohammad Rafique and Khaled Mashud who ensured that Bangladesh set a somewhat competitive target of 236. However, Avishka Gunawardene and Upul Tharanga both made centuries, and the Bangladeshi bowlers were thoroughly hit around. Sri Lanka made their way to 236 for 0 in just 36.1 overs of the possible 50. To add insult to injury, Mashrafe Mortaza suffered a back spasm and was ruled out of the first ODI. Cricinfo scorecard
ODI series 1st ODI
Bangladesh won the toss in the first of three matches, and under cloudy skies they chose to bowl first, putting faith in his newly composed seam bowling attack of Tapash Baisya and Syed Rasel with the new ball. However, the pair leaked runs during the first eight overs, and the score was 51 for 0 when Baisya ran in to bowl his fifth over of the day and Bangladesh's ninth. However, Sanath Jayasuriya was bowled by an inswinging delivery from Baisya for 25, and that slowed Sri Lanka down. Baisya even bowled a maiden over as the Sri Lankans chose to wait out the middle overs and set the platform for big hitting at the end - which worked perfectly.
Aftab Ahmed, the batsman used as an all-rounder with his medium pace in ODIs, got a bit of movement in the conditions, and that helped him to take two wickets - those of Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara. However, he also bowled five wides in the process, and one of them even went to the boundary for four runs. Ahmed conceded 55 runs off his ten overs, and the two wickets did not help Bangladesh much, as Mahela Jayawardene and Russel Arnold helped themselves to boundaries as the innings neared a close. Spinner Mohammad Rafique toiled for Bangladesh, but could only get one wicket for plenty of runs, although a stumping chance went begging earlier on. Arnold was run out at the end of the 43rd over, though, and Manjural Islam Rana got a wicket with his last delivery of the day, as the new batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan swept a top edge to Syed Rasel down the leg side. The wickets slowed Sri Lanka down somewhat, but only temporarily, as Jayawardene quickly got on top of the bowling again. In the final over of Sri Lanka's innings, three wickets fell, Jayawardene eventually being run out having added 50 runs in an hour. Sri Lanka closed on 269 for 9.
A crowd of a couple of hundred saw Bangladesh's opening batsman Javed Omar hit three boundaries in the opening overs, but he was run out by Russel Arnold, and from then on, Bangladesh lost wickets regularly. No partnership passed 30 until that of the very last wicket, by which time it was all too late. Dilhara Fernando started the procession, deceiving Tushar Imran and Mohammad Ashraful to send them back for single-figure scores, and joint top-scorer Shahriar Nafees was fourth to fall, giving a return catch to Dilshan. Following Nafees' dismissal, Bangladesh quickly crashed to 103 for 8, with fast bowler Farveez Maharoof taking three wickets. Eventually, Bangladesh needed 143 for the last wicket off 98 deliveries, and Khaled Mashud and Tapash Baisya opted to block out the overs instead - while the Sri Lankan captain gave the ball to his spinners to get the match over with quickly, the three seamers Chaminda Vaas, Fernando and Maharoof only bowling 20 of a possible 30 overs. Cricinfo scorecard
2nd ODI
Upul Tharanga made another big score as Sri Lanka once again batted Bangladesh out of the game. The left-hander, who had a disappointing run in the Indian Oil Cup a month earlier, now hit plenty of boundaries into the off side, as he and Sanath Jayasuriya flayed the Bangladeshi pacers Tapash Baisya, Syed Rasel and Nazmul Hossain. Admittedly, Tharanga had a slice of luck early on, as Manjural Islam Rana dropped him at slip on 13, but he never failed from there. In the opening 15 overs, Tharanga and Jayasuriya added 100 runs, before Jayasuriya finally edged a short-pitched ball behind to wicket-keeper Khaled Mashud. A slower period followed, as number 3 Dilshan was more cautious against the seam bowlers, spending an hour at the crease but only making 27. Tharanga, however, accumulated singles well off the spinners, keeping the run rate well above five an over to end with 105 before Rana got his revenge - Tharanga came down the pitch to Rana, but missed the ball, and was stumped by Masud.
The Bangladeshi bowlers bowled patiently, but the poor start had cost them badly, and it went from bad to worse when Nazmul limped off in his seventh over. He was eventually substituted for Tushar Imran, while Aftab Ahmed took over his bowling duties. Neither could contain the Sri Lankans, though, as the captain Marvan Atapattu and wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara took Sri Lanka past 200 with 11 overs to go. Sangakkara eventually fell to Rafique, and in the next over Syed Rasel got rid of pinch hitter Dilhara Lokuhettige for 2, only to see Mahela Jayawardene, the man of the last match, come in to partner Atapattu. The pair added 43 from the last 26 balls, Atapattu recording a whirlwind 53 while Jayawardene closed on 23.
The chase was never really on for Bangladesh, who kept their run rate steadily above 4 an over but had to see the required rate explode to nearly nine an over. When that happened in the 28th over, and the score was at 121 for 2, the Bangladeshis tried to hit out, and duly lost three wickets to Dilshan's off spin. Shahriar Nafees was first to fall to Dilshan's spin, having made his second ODI fifty in six games, while Rafique and Ashraful followed shortly afterwards. Forced onto the back foot with the score 140 for 5, Bangladesh put on substitute Tushar Imran, who joined in a partnership of 71 with Bashar in 13 overs. However, the pair scored too slowly to have any chance of winning, instead just trying to save face. Sri Lanka saved their pace bowlers again, opting for Dilshan, Upul Chandana and even the medium pace of Mahela Jayawardene, as they used eight of their eleven possible bowlers in the innings. Cricinfo scorecard
3rd ODI
Bangladesh failed to convert a promising start into a competitive total in the third and final ODI of the series, as Maharoof and Lokuhettige conceded 46 runs off the eight opening overs, despite bowling in friendly conditions with plenty of clouds. Lokuhettige was especially expensive, and was duly taken off for Dilhara Fernando, who got the breakthrough for Sri Lanka as Javed Omar was out lbw to Fernando. That started the slide. Maharoof continued from the other end, inducing catches from the bats of Rafique and Shahriar Nafees, and suddenly Bangladesh were staring down a familiar hole, the score 51 for 3 at the end of 10 overs.
Composure would be required from Aftab Ahmed and Mohammad Ashraful, but the pair lasted only one over, Fernando bowling a slower ball to Ashraful which he could not get bat on and was lbw for 0. Aftab Ahmed saw off six more balls before he, too, was lbw, misreading the line of a ball from Maharoof, and captain Bashar completed the procession by edging to Sangakkara for 1. In 26 deliveries, Bangladesh had only scored seven runs, and they had lost six wickets in the process. The primary task for Bangladesh now were to survive 48 overs (their innings had been shortened slightly due to bad light), but even that was too much of a challenge, as the spinners Upul Chandana and Tillakaratne Dilshan shared the four last wickets, all caught, to see Bangladesh all out for 108.
The chase of 106 - again cut down due to rain - was led by Avishka Gunawardene, who saw off the opening bowlers with relative ease, taking Rasel for runs while defending more against the experienced Baisya - who dug out two wickets, those of Tharanga and pinch-hitter Lokuhettige. However, he did not get any further wickets, and Bangladesh were put to the sword by Gunawardene before Rafique and Mahmud calmed him down as he neared fifty. After four overs without boundaries, Gunawardene brought up his fifty with one edged through third man, before pulling a short ball straight to Tushar Imran who held the catch comfortably. Yet, Sri Lanka still needed 22 runs for the victory, with seven wickets in hand and one of their most experienced batsmen in Kumar Sangakkara at the crease. In the 21st over, Sangakkara levelled the scores with two big leg side shots that went for four, before calling a risky single that had Thilan Samaraweera run out for 18. Nevertheless, it was all too late, as Sangakkara wrapped it up by hitting a single to midwicket. Cricinfo scorecard
Sri Lanka Development XI v Bangladeshis, 7–9 September
Match drawn