Bangladesh v Sri Lanka: Cricket World Cup 2023 – live | Cricket World Cup 2023

14th over: Sri Lanka 76-3 ( Samarawickrama 6, Asalanka 3) Shoriful returns, which makes sense; if he’s going to be expensive, the time to bowl him is now, with two new men at the crease. Samarawickrama takes one to point, then Asalanka pushes down the ground; they run three, Hridoy chasing, diving, and flicking away from the rope.

“How’s the smog?” wonders Andrew Cosgrove – it’s fine in north London, thanks. “I saw rumours a few days ago that this match was in danger of being called off because of the air quality, but I guess it would have to get to the point of players passing out for that to happen (there was also talk that a lot of the players in these two sides have asthma so haven’t been able to train the last couple of days).

I know exactly what you mean about the Taj Mahal. It’s a bit like Uluru, in that respect – you’ve seen so many photos of it, you know exactly what it looks like, but that still doesn’t prepare you for actually being there and seeing it close up.

My other top tip for Agra is Akhbar’s tomb. It’s almost (although not quite, obviously) as spectacular as the Taj, but at least when we were there there were only about twenty other people, which improved the experience considerably.”

The Grand Canyon, by far the best natural wonder I’ve seen, is the other thing I’ve seen that fits into this category. You think you know what a big hole looks like; you do not.

13th over: Sri Lanka 72-3 ( Samarawickrama 5, Asalanka 0) Tanzim is into this, producing a serious rock to beat Asalanka first up, a bit of movement off the pitch beating the outside edge.

WICKET! Nissanka b Tanzim 41 (Sri Lanka 72-3)

13th over: Sri Lanka 72-2 ( Nissanka 41, Samarawickrama 5) Samarawickrama flips two to square leg, then takes one to cover.

12th over: Sri Lanka 69-2 ( Nissanka 41, Samarawickrama 2) Three more singles, but Bangladesh will be glad to have broken that partnership.

WICKET! Mendis c Shoriful c Shakib 19 (Bangladesh 66-2)

12th over: Sri Lanka 66-1 ( Nissanka 40, Mendis 19) Shakib tosses the ball to himself and concedes singles off his first two deliveries.

11th over: Sri Lanka 64-1 ( Nissanka 39, Mendis 19) Mendis has seen enough, pulling Tanzim’s first ball from outside off over wide mid-on for six! A wide follows, then a decent channel-ball that beats the bat as the Sri Lanka captain prods forward; the bowler has some thoughts on the matter, sharing them with the batter, Marais Erasmus orders him to relax, and he sends down a fine delivery … that’s edged for four! A misfield then yields a single, then Mendis narrowly avoids playing on, and Tanzim is all over him!

“Just running in to the OBO before I head off to drive my friends to pick up a puppy,” advises Philip Wainwright. “‘I’m not sure Bangladesh have ever been this weel-sticked for quicks’,” he says, quoting my now-corrected typos back to myself. “Made me smile, this, as brought up fond memories of Allo Allo’s *superb* Officer Crabtree. I could losten to hum eel doy.”

A logend of my chuldhid.

10th over: Sri Lanka 52-1 ( Nissanka 39, Mendis 7) Mendis plays down square of the wicket, but a dive by the man at point limits him to one; Nissanka then looks to whip four through midwicket, squirting four through cover instead. That’s the end of the powerplay, and both sides will think they’re in an alright position.

“I have seen a lot of strong teams from the subcontinent relying either on batting (India, SL, Ban) or bowling (Pak) but never a team like the current Indian team,” returns Krishnamoorthy V. “It has seven batsmen, and six bowlers in a team of 11 with a WK thrown in. I still feel India will goof it up in the knockout matches a la 2019. In today’s match, I see a Bangladesh win. They would play like a relegated Burnley beating Spurs on matchday 38.”

I fancy Sri Lanka today because I don’t fancy Bangladesh to chase anything, and also think that when we say India’s attack is excellent, we really mean Jasprit Bumrah is wonderful.

9th over: Sri Lanka 47-1 ( Nissanka 35, Mendis 6) More singles, four of them, and Tanzim is bowling a decent line, just outside off. Allan Donald has a fair bit to work with really – I’m not sure Bangladesh have ever been this well-stocked for quicks.

8th over: Sri Lanka 43-1 ( Nissanka 33, Mendis 4) Delhi, though, what a city. I can’t lie, my favourite part of India visited is the Himalayas, but I loved the buzz about the capital. Also, a word to the wise: I was extremely resistant to visiting the Taj Mahal, – though its presence in Sooty’s World Tour made it iconic in my childhood – on the basis schlepping to Agra was too much trouble given we knew what it looked like. And, er, I was wrong – time in its presence is a total privilege, see it if you can. Yes, that is the OBO with the news: the Taj Mahal is alright. Four singles and a wide off another well-directed Taskin over.

“England’s problem was not so much the attack,” writes John Starbuck, “which often held opponents to a reasonable score, but the dreadful batting collapses. We’ve seen that in other teams too (SA especially as so unexpected) but none so consistent.”

I know what you mean, but we shouldn’t forget how badly Woakes and Curran began the tournament. No side is coping well with scoreboard pressure.

7th over: Sri Lanka 38-1 ( Nissanka 31, Mendis 2) Tanzim replaces Shoriful and after a single to Mendis, Nissanka edges on a decent bouncer, this time the dive of Mushfiqur defeated. The next ball is much fuller and it’s another decent one … and it’s another one which goes for four, Nissanka edging behind; he now has 31 off 22. This game!

6th over: Sri Lanka 29-1 ( Nissanka 23, Mendis 1) Taskin is bowling nicely and he opens this over with a nut, moving the ball away from Mendis and just past his outside edge. But then he breaks a run of 13 straight dots by turning into the on side, before another luscious straight drive from Nissanka turns a good over for Bangladesh into a decent one for Sri Lanka.

5th over: Sri Lanka 24-1 ( Nissanka 19, Mendis 0) Shoriful needs to support Taskin, but again he slants one short, wide and across Nissanka – the lefty angle isn’t helping him here – who gets on top of the bounce and wastes through cover for four. A two follows, and he’s seeing it nicely.

“The way India is performing in this WC is bordering on illegal,” says Krishnamoorthy V. I am reminded of Asterix and Obelix wading through the Roman garrisons, leaving them hanging from tree tops and lying scattered on the floor. It is almost scary. The famous ‘law of averages’ applies only to an average team I guess.”

It’s the attack, isn’t it? We’ve seen lots of fine batting sides, but it’s relatively rare we come across bowlers as good. It’s also relatively rare the best side in the groups is the side dancing about with a pot at the end of the competition, but it’ll take Germany 1954 behaviour to stop these.

4th over: Sri Lanka 18-1 ( Nissanka 13, Mendis 0) You can see this is a track on which you’d like to bat. It doesn’t just come on, it sits up, and if Mendis, who’s been in poor form since assuming the captaincy, will know that if he gets in, he can make a statement. So he plays out a maiden, wearing Taskin’s fifth delivery on the pad – it jags back in nicely – and in comms, they want a second slip in – which makes sense, as the last ball, whizzes through the corridor, Mendis keeping away from it.

3rd over: Sri Lanka 18-1 ( Nissanka 13, Mendis 0) Lovely from Nissanka, riding the bounce outside off by getting on tippy-toes to ease four through point … then presenting the full face fo fo mo. Two absolutely beautiful shots those, though Shoriful was perhaps a little full … and another wide one is shoved through extra to the fence! Twelve off the over!

Email! “I’m here because I have a soft spot for SL,” says Ido Admon. “Gotta admit that even though I had South Africa as pre-tournament favourites, I was quite pleased for yesterday’s result – means those recent humiliations by India are not Lanka-specific!”

India ust look miles better than everyone, don’t they? Imagine the teeth-gnashing if they don’t win it, it’d make Italy losing to Argentina at the 1990 World Cup look like jelly and ice cream.

2nd over: Sri Lanka 6-1 ( Nissanka 1, Mendis 0) I think Shakib took out a slip before the wicket in order to have a square leg, and Shoriful perhaps threw it wide because Perera was clearly going after everything. The ball was full, inciting the drive, and the bounce we mentioned earlier meant the shot was a bit uppish. Nissanka gets off the mark with a flay to third, the only run from this first Taskin over.

WICKET! Perera c Mushfiqur b Shoriful 4 (Sri Lanka 5-1)

1st over: Sri Lanka 5-0 ( Nissanka 0, Perera 4) There’s a bit of bounce in the track and the first ball flicks off Nissanka’s thigh pad and they sneak a leg bye. This brings Perea onto strike and he shows his intention immediately, hammering a short, wide one into the pitch; he didn’t quite time that, because it was there to be clobbered. No matter, another one into the same area and he laces four through cover.

Shoriful Islam has the ball…

Righto, off we go, and play.

I daresay batting first isn’t bad for Sri Lanka, because any kind of scoreboard pressure will be a problem for Bangladesh. I’d not trust either of these to chase anything.

Anthem time. I do like Sri Lanka’s, it’s so nicely jaunty.

Here come the umpires … and the teams.

Talking of Manjrekar…

Chris Silverwood, Sri Lanka coach, says there’s been some good bits and bad bits, noting that though they got clattered by India, that’s the best white-ball attack we’ve seen in a bit. He’s had to build his players back up after their shellacking but they’re a developing team and have to bring confidence and spirit to the game, believing in themselves and each other. A win today would put the Lankans in a nice spot for the Champions Trophy, so he’s hoping for that.

Confession corner: my 10-year-old is 10 today, and has been bought a pair of totally plain Air Force 1s. Totally plain! I know! I’m not a monster, I promise. Her favourite colour is purple

Sanjay Manjrekar delivers the pitch report in a fedora, like it’s perfectly normal behaviour. Perhaps it’s contagious, because Bumble recently started dressing like an undercover detective. Anyroad up, this is the second-most prolific track in the tournament and boundaries are pretty short, so there are scoring opportunities out there.

Teams!

Kusal Mendis would’ve fielded too, but is now targeting 300+. Sri Lanka make two changes, Dhananjaya and Kusal Perera replacing Karunaratne and Hemantha.

Bangladesh win the toss and will field!

Both of these sides have struggled with their batting, so might fancy this track. The ball should come on, question is whether there’s anyone in either lineup with the confidence to take advantage.

I’m being unfair. If you’d paid in and got to see Virat scoring a home World Cup birthday ton, you’d’ve took it. But a close match would be nice.

Another banga:

I said earlier this is gratuitous cricket and it is, but the top eight here qualify for the Champions Trophy; currently Sri Lanka are seventh and Bangladesh ninth.

Preamble