Bhanuka Rajapaksa defends Shanaka's comments on the Bangladesh team

Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka

Sri Lanka pulled off a thrilling two-wicket victory from the jaws of defeat over Bangladesh to qualify for the Asia Cup Super Four stage Thursday.

In a game that swung back and forth, Sri Lanka held their nerve under pressure to sneak in a two-wicket win and qualify to the Super Four stage of the ongoing Asia Cup 2022. Sri Lanka chased down a challenging target of 184 with four balls and two wickets to spare to qualify for the next phase of the tournament.

The stakes were high for the much-anticipated clash, not just because it was a knockout game but also due to the verbal battle between the teams before the start of the game.

It all started with Sri Lanka's white ball skipper Dasun Shanaka saying that the Bangladesh team is over-reliant on Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman and it will be easy for his side to play against them than the Afghanistan team. 

Bangladesh's team director led the response from the Tigers' camp by saying that the Sri Lankan team have no superstars to rely upon.

The heated exchange between the two Asian Giants before the start of the game raised the stakes.

Rajapaksa comes in support of his skipper

"I don't think he made anything wrong. He meant that we have a slight advantage of facing the Bangladesh bowlers. So what happened there was a small misunderstanding between the two teams," 

Speaking after the thriller, a level-headed- Bhanuka Rajapaksa addressed the post-match conference and defended his skipper's comments on the Bangladesh players. Rajapaksa said that Shanaka did not say anything wrong and the media misquoted his words which led to this heated exchange between the two neighbouring nations.

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