Bangladesh has made the right moves in the Asia Cup. Mushfiqur Rahim's men gave a minor scare to Pakistan, delivered a counter-punch against M.S. Dhoni's men and robbed Sachin Tendulkar's icing on the cake – an Indian victory to complement the historic ton.
The five-wicket triumph over big-brother has given a huge fillip to Bangladesh's optimism ahead of its Asia Cup match against Sri Lanka here on Tuesday and Mashrafe Mortaza said: “Defeating India has boosted our confidence. We know that every player in the Sri Lankan team can raise their game and do well but we will play good cricket and the chance of qualifying for the final, will motivate us more.”
Mortaza also revealed that fellow-seamer Shafiul Islam has been ruled out with a tear in the right shoulder.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is searching for a redemptive-victory and Mahela Jayawardene said: “Unfortunately we made mistakes and lost our first two matches but we want to win this game against Bangladesh and go out on a high.”
Filling a void
The visitor's captain said that Muttiah Muralitharan's retirement had left a gaping hole and hoped that a clutch of bowlers will collectively fill the void.
The normally mild-mannered Jayawardene was also caught on the wrong foot when a Colombo-based scribe asked him repeatedly about the losses in Australia and Bangladesh.
The skipper answered patiently but once the press conference concluded, he walked up to the scribe and the resultant terse exchange of words in Sinhala, left a bitter after-taste.
