Litton, Shamim lead Bangladesh's rout of Sri Lanka

Bangladesh snapped their six-game losing streak in dominant fashion as they handed Sri Lanka a 83-run defeat in front of a packed house in Dambulla, and with it levelled the three match series 1-1.

Litton Das' 76 off 50 - he put to rest a 13-match run without a fifty - headlined Bangladesh's innings, but it was Shamim Hossain's destructive 48 off 27 that shifted the winds in Bangladesh's favour.

Chasing 178, Sri Lanka's top order failed to fire - unlike in Kandy - and an excellent Bangladesh effort with the ball and in the field ensured the Sri Lanka middle and lower order were not able to bail them out either.

To the crowd's credit they hung around as wicket after wicket fell, but as early as the 12th over the droves began to filter out, as the last recognised batter - Dasun Shanaka - fell with just 73 runs on the board. Sri Lanka's innings lasted just 15.2 overs.

It was the 12th over of the Bangladesh innings that shifted the game in the visitors' favour, as it brought Shamim to the crease earlier than might have initially been planned. At the time though, the innings looked anything but redeemable.

The openers had thrown their wickets away in what might be described as cosplay efforts of aggression on a good batting surface, while Litton and Towhid Hridoy's efforts at consolidation had helped their side avert a collapse.

However, when Towhid sliced one to short third and Mehidy Hasan Miraz scooped another to short fine leg, it looked as if all that consolidation had gone to waste. But Shamim's entry changed the dynamics of the innings, and indeed the game.

Off just second ball he faced he cut one away from close to the stumps. A couple of deliveries later the pace was taken off, but Shamim responded with a bat swing that was even more rapid. Shamim's next boundaries came against Sri Lanka's death-bowling specialists - three off Nuwan Thushara, and one each off Maheesh Theekshana and Binura Fernando.

But the expert ball-striking and placement was only a small part of Shamim's innings. Across his 27 deliveries faced, only five were dots. Shamim was then at the heart of disrupting Sri Lanka's chase, effecting the run out of Kusal Mendis and holding on to running catch in the deep to remove Avishka Fernando.

His energy was infectious, and even if his eagerness for singles might have eventually led to his - and Jaker Ali's - downfall in the final over as they sought to steal runs to the keeper, the momentum he had created would create the conditions for Bangladesh's ultimate victory.

Litton hadn't come into this game in any great form. He'd scored a pair of 40s this year, but his last 50-plus score in T20Is had come all the way back in June 2024. Even his coach had to acknowledge prior to the game that his skipper wasn't in the best of form.

So, when Litton sauntered down the track and missed a wide one from Jeffrey Vandersay, it seemed inevitable that lean run was destined to continue. Kusal Mendis, however, was unable to gather this wide legbreak that spun even wider, and Litton survived. He was on 30 at the time.

Had he fallen then, perhaps Sri Lanka might have pressed home their advantage further. But in reality, the more painful missed chance came some six overs later, with Litton shanking an attempted sweep on 56, only to be dropped by Theekshana at mid-off in the 16th over.

By the time Theekshana had dismissed Litton three overs later, he had added a further 20 runs to his total and the momentum had decidedly shifted in Bangladesh's favour.

In the first T20I, the chase was effectively killed inside the powerplay by the sheer belligerence of Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka. In those two, Sri Lanka have power-hitters to rival some of the best in the world, but the question lingered around the capabilities of the rest of the batting.

In Dambulla, that question was put to the test. Kusal was run out early, and some tight bowling by Bangladesh's revamped bowling attack - both Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam were drafted in for this game - meant Nissanka was kept quiet for long periods before eventually falling tamely.

But at the first time of asking this series, the collective grade was a resounding 'F'. None of Avishka Fernando, Kusal Perera or Charith Asalanka were able to provide the sort of counterpunch demanded in such scenarios. Though the lower-order enforcers in Chamika Karunaratne and Shanaka fared little better, the chase was always beyond Sri Lanka's reach. Such was Bangladesh's hold on the game.