Very exciting for the whole nation: Bhanuka Rajapaksa on clinching thriller vs Bangladesh in Asia Cup 2022

Sri Lanka star Bhanuka Rajapaksa said on Thursday, 1 September that it was a very exciting moment for the nation after their team defeated Bangladesh in a thriller to enter the Super fours of the competition.

Bangladesh were knocked out of the Asia Cup after losing to Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup by 2 wickets on Thursday, 1 September. The Shakib Al Hasan-led team bowled four no balls in their innings, which ended up being the main reason for the downfall of the team.

A brewing subcontinental rivalry, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka started off with a war of words between the players and the management which commenced into all rounder Chamika Karunaratne bringing out the ‘naagin dance’ after the game.

Speaking after the thriller, Bhanuka Rajapasksa addressed the impact of the game and said that this is a morale boosting victory for the Sri Lankan nation.

"Of course, we are happy because after winning a game, it's quite thrilling and what we need is winning games. We came here to justify ourselves to the UAE. This tournament was supposed to be held in Sri Lanka, but unfortunately, with the situation back home, we couldn't keep it in Sri Lanka. But with all the experience that the players have gained playing together in the last maybe 12 or 15 months, it has brought us much closer as a team," he talked about the political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

Asked about the error margins in the game, Rajapaksa said that Bangladesh failed to contain their batters despite going all out ahead of the final over of the game. Spinner Mahedi Hasan came to bowl the final over of the match with 8 runs in hand and got smacked for a four in the second delivery. A no ball after that sealed the game for Sri Lanka and took them to the Super fours.

"Of course, both teams made a lot of mistakes, but eventually the team that makes (the) least mistakes wins the game. You can't blame Bangladesh for what they did because they wanted to bowl their best bowlers and get us all out before our tailenders appeared. And what went wrong? I would say that's just that, you know, some extras came to us in our favour and our players, our batters, our tailenders raised their hands and they did the job for us. And it's quite exciting to see when tailenders win the game for us and it's very, very exciting for the whole nation as well," Rajpaksa concluded.