Malinga finishes the game one last time in style

Lasith Malinga picked up three wickets in his final ODIs.

Sri Lanka 314 for 8 (K Perera 111, Shafiul Islam 3-62) beat Bangladesh 223 (Rahim 67, Sabbir 60, Malinga 3-38, Pradeep 3-51) by 91 runs

Colombo: So finally Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 91 runs and Lasith Malinga took the final wicket. Holds up his hands. Lasith Malinga: 226 matches, 338 wickets at 28.87. Finishes ahead of Anil Kumble.

Hugs from his team-mates and hugs as he walks through Bangladesh’s guard of honour. Malinga finishes his final one figures as 9.4-2-38-3.

Chasing a 315, Bangladesh faltered after a couple of good partnerships and subsequently got out for 223 in 41.4 overs. After recovering from the 40/4, Bangladesh batters took their team to 105/4 in 20 overs. After 38.3 overs, Bangladesh were 200/9.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, Sri Lanka put 314/8 on board against Bangladesh in the first ODI of the series. Despite they lost their opener Fernando for as cheaply as 10 runs, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and number 3 batsman Kusal Parera revived the team with their 97-run partnership.

It took Sri Lanka past 100 before the skipper got out for 36 runs.

Kusal Parera then put up a brilliant show and scored his 5th ODI ton. His 82-ball 101 was a huge push the team before he got out for 111 off 99 balls.

With important contributions from Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka finally put 314 runs on board.

A brilliant effort by Bangladesh bowlers as they did not let Sri Lankan middle-order bat as freely as Parera did.

Lasith Malinga will play his final ODI as Karunaratne-led Sri Lanka will look to send him off with a win.

Malinga is three wickets away from surpassing former Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble’s tally of wickets in ODI cricket and becoming the ninth-highest wicket-taker of all time. The 35-year-old played his last World Cup game against India.

Tamim Iqbal-led Bangladesh consider themselves as favourites to win the ODI series after a decent run in the World Cup 2019, despite getting knocked out in the league stages of the mega-event.

Sri Lanka were placed sixth at the points table whereas Bangladesh were in the eighth slot. Both the teams won three matches in the tournament.