MOMENTS

ASELA ONCE AGAIN

Soumya Sarkar was batting like a man possessed. Starting from the fifth ball of the fourth over and till the fourth ball of the seventh, he hit two sixes and three boundaries while scoring 29 runs in eight balls. Sri Lanka skipper Upul Tharanga was at a loss. His trump card Lasith Malinga was supposed to be the man to stop Soumya in his tracks.

But he was dispatched for two boundaries in the seventh over. Then, maybe Tharanga remembered he had another trump card at the opposite end of the spectrum -- Asela Gunaratne, one of the slowest off-spinners with a long run-up who for inexplicable reasons had caused Soumya a world of problems in the Tests. Well, not quite inexplicable – off the first ball Soumya faced off him, Soumya played too early -- as if you could be late against Gunaratne – and offered a simple return catch.

SHAKIB'S TWIN LIVES

One of the enduring memories of this tour will be Shakib Al Hasan's batting on the second evening of the P Sara Oval Test, when caution was desperately called for but he went hell for leather, survived a dropped chance, to go to stumps on an eight-ball 18. It was an innings worthy of censure, but yesterday in the 10th over of a T20 innings, he was well within his rights to do a repeat.

And just like in the Test, he was lucky to survive. He hit Seekkuge Prasanna to square leg and a valiant effort to catch a powerful hit just ended up conceding four runs. Shakib then pulled fiercely to the midwicket boundary but in an attempt to repeat the stroke was lucky again as the midwicket fielder dropped a high chance that died on him as he ran nearly 30 yards. At the end of the over, Shakib was on 13 off eight -- not quite up to Test standards. 

THE WRONG KIND OF GOLDEN END

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza strode out in the 19th over after Lasith Malinga had taken out Mushfiqur Rahim's stumps. This was Mashrafe's last innings and he must have been thinking of hitting some of the big sixes he is known for.

But that was not to be as a yorker first ball took out his stumps for a golden duck. But what seemed an unwanted end soon became a distinguished one. Debutant Mehedi Hasan Miraz was trapped in front off a slower ball. And Mashrafe became the middle victim in Malinga's fourth international hattrick.