Bangladesh opt to field first

Sports Desk: Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and decided to bowl first against Sri Lanka in the third and series-deciding ODI at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground of Colombo on Saturday morning.

Bangladesh will begin proceedings with a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Sri Lanka having been outplayed in the first game came out strongly with the bat in the previous encounter, but it was the rain, that spoilt their chances in the second ODI.

The visitors went in with an unchanged side, selecting the same XI that won them the first match in Dambulla. Sri Lanka, however, swapped fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep for spin-bowling allrounder Seekkuge Prasanna, who will be playing his first match in the series.

Though the weather was fine at the toss, thunderstorms in the afternoon are likely.

Sri Lanka 1 Upul Tharanga (capt), 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Asela Gunaratne, 6 Milinda Siriwardana, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Sachith Pathirana, 9 Dilruwan Perera, 10 Nuwan Kulasekara, 11 Suranga Lakmal

Bangladesh 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mosaddek Hossain, 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Mehedi Hasan, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Taskin Ahmed




Risingbd/April 1, 2017/Mukul