Didn't take Bangladesh for granted - Gunathilaka

Sri Lankan opener Danushka Gunathilaka said on Thursday (February 15) that his side was confident of chasing down a huge total in the opening Twenty20 international against Bangladesh as the wicket was good for batting. Sri Lanka chased down Bangladesh's highest T20I score to go 1-0 up in the two-match series at Dhaka.

The visitors took the lead in the series with some style as they chased down 194 runs, their highest chase in T20Is without any sort of discomfort whatsoever. In the run chase, they came out all guns blazing after a quiet first over. Kusal Mendis registered a quick-fire fifty off 25 balls and set the tone for the fireworks later.

Despite a brief spell where the Islanders lost a couple of wickets, the scoring rate refused to stay quiet. Dasun Shanaka and Thisara Perera provided the finishing touches with a stunning 65-run partnership off just 30 balls.

"It was a good wicket to bat on," Gunathilaka said after the win. "We talked before the second innings that it was a good wicket to bat and we just needed to do our basics and if we can do our basics then we can chase down the target.

"We were trying to attack them as we know we have to chase down 190-plus total. So we were trying to put the pressure at the start," he added.

Despite winning the tri-series and the Test series in Bangladesh recently, Gunathilaka pointed out that his side didn't take the home side lightly. "Not like that. Bangladesh team is always doing well and last two years they did really well. We didn't take the match for granted. We knew that we have to do really well to beat Bangladesh as they have so many great players and especially last year in BPL, some of (the) players played really well." he said.

Bangladesh fielded four newcomers - Afif Hossain, Ariful Haque, Nazmul Islam, Zakir Hasan as Shakib al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal were unable to play due to injuries. Even though the left-hander sympathised with the hosts, he also noted that his side was missing some key players.

"He [Shakib] is a very key player in the Bangladesh team," Gunathilaka admitted. "But you can't say that as in our team also we have three injuries. Asela (Gunaratne) has injury, Angelo (Mathews) and Kusal (Perera) as well and it always happens when you play cricket. It was a bad thing for Bangladesh team but we have to play with that as well."