Lahiru Thirimanne single handedly assured Sri Lanka of a gold or a silver medal in the Asian Games 2014 as he called correct after their semi-final encounter with Bangladesh was abandoned due to heavy showers on Thursday evening at Incheon.
Lahiru Thirimanne won the first toss of the day and elected to field as the weather reports predicted the rain would hamper the semi-final. Sri Lanka struck early in the first over as Anamul Haque Bijoi was dismissed first ball by Dilhara Lokuhettige and he took the second wicket in his 2nd over as Bangladesh was restricted to 3 for the loss of 2 wickets as Mohammed Mithun too failed to trouble the scorers as well.
Bangladesh fell into more misery as they lost their star all-rounder Shakib Al-Hasan in the 4th over as Isuru Udana picked his first wicket of the match. Sabbir Rehman joined opener Tamim Iqbal to resurrect the Bangladeshi innings. The 4th wicket pair stroked 53 runs to take the score to 59 in 11 overs before the rain came pouring down.
Both teams and officials waited anxiously until the 2-hour rain eased off but the ground remained unplayable which prompted the match referee Venkatapathi Raju to call for the toss to decide the winner of the 2nd semi-final after as per Asian games regulations.
In the other game Afghanistan defeated Hong Kong by 8 wickets according to the D/L method in the 1st semi-final.
In 2010 cricket made their debut in Guangzhou, China and Bangladesh claimed the Asian Games medal beating Afghanistan in the final.
A new Asian Games cricket champion will be crowned on Friday as Sri Lanka will take on Afghanistan in the gold medal match on 10.30am (SL time) while Bangladesh will vie for the bronze medal against Hong Kong.
Chief Scores:
Bangladesh – 59/3 in 11 overs: Sabbir Rehman 27*, Tamim Iqbal 24*, Dilhara Lokuhettige 2/2.
