Sri Lanka lost all hope after being bowled out for 244 on a placid pitch, but Bangladesh, after a fantastic start, looked very much on course with 99 runs for the loss of 1 wicket in 16.3 overs .
Suddenly, a fantastic runout improvised by the golden arm of Milan Ratnayaka to run Najmul Shanto for 23 turned the game on its head, with Bangladesh losing 7 wickets for 5 runs, dumped the visitors down the barrel to 105 runs for 8 wickets..
This was a Ripley’s, believe it or not, effort by Sri Lanka, who were exceptional on the field with Wanindu Hasaranga scalping 4 wickets for 10 runs and Kamindu Mendis making up for his batting folly by capturing 3 wickets for 19 runs as the Bangladesh batters looked in disarray, playing the wrong line against the Sri Lankan spinners and throwing their wickets in an appalling collapse that even shell shocked the Sri Lankan supporters.
Bangladesh managed to score 167 runs. Thanks, mainly to Jaker Ali and his resistance when he hung around with the tail to score 51 runs in a losing cause. Opener Tanzid Hassan made 62, he was dismissed by a Hasaranga wrong un, but credit of this scalp should go to Janith Liyanage for taking an out of the world catch by diving in midair fielding at long off , and that catch will go down as the best we have seen in this series so far.
Charith Asalanka, the Sri Lankan captain, was adjudicated as man of the match for his brilliance with the bat. The left-hander scored his 5th century, 106 runs in 127 balls with 6 boundaries, and 4 towering sixes.
Kusal Mendis supported him with 48 Janith Liyanage 29, with contributions from Wanindu Hasaranga, who made 22 and Milan Ratnayaka, also chipping in with a valuable 22.
Sri Lankan top order of Pathum Nissanka, Nishan Madushka, and Kamindu Mendis failed and Sri Lanka slumped to 29 for 3 wickets in 6.4 overs.
Taskin Ahmed was unplayable upfront with 4 wickets for 47 and Tanzim Sakib with 3 for 46.
Poor effort and panic in the Bangladesh batting cordon cost them this game as Sri Lanka go one up in the series.