BAN vs SL 2024: Nuwan Thushara becomes fifth Sri Lankan bowler to take a hat-trick in T20Is

Nuwan Thushara bagged a hat-trick against Bangladesh in the decisive third T20I at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet. The three-match series is intriguingly poised at 1-1.

Chasing a challenging target of 175, Bangladesh would have hoped for a positive start to their innings from the flamboyant opening pair of Litton Das and Soumya Sarkar. However, the wicketkeeper-batter was dismissed in the third over by Dhananjaya de Silva.

Thushara, who operates with a slingy action, was introduced into the attack for the first time in the following over. After getting away with a full toss of the first ball, he took the wickets of Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, and Mahmudullah off consecutive deliveries to achieve the special feat.

Shanto was beaten for pace as the ball came back in after pitching on a good length. It also kept a tad low as the southpaw could not get his bat anywhere close to it. The right-arm pacer followed it up with another pearler as he pitched the ball up and it swung away past Hridoy's defence and crashed into off-stump. The experienced Mahmudullah came out to face the music as Thushara was breathing fire. He bowled a similar delivery to the one that got the better of Hridoy. However, instead of crashing into the stumps, the ball wrapped Mahmudullah on his right pad. The umpire made no hesitation in raising his finger The batter reviewed but DRS returned with umpire's call on impact as well as on hitting.

The Sri Lankan players went into a frenzy as they knew that Thushara had given them the start they had dreamt of. Thushara became the fifth Sri Lankan bowler to take a T20I hat-trick. Lasith Malinga is the only bowler from the island nation to take two T20I hat-tricks in his illustrious career.

Kusal Mendis powers Sri Lanka to 174/7

Earlier in the day, Shanto won the toss and opted to field first. Kusal Mendis played a fine innings of 86 off 55 balls, hitting six fours and as many sixes. However, he didn't get much support from the other end as the next-best score was 19.

Dasun Shanaka scored those 19 runs and it came off just nine balls. The former Sri Lankan captain belted two fours and a solitary six. Taskin Ahmed was the pick of the Bangladeshi bowlers as he finished with figures of 2/25 in four overs.

Also Read: SL vs BAN 2024: Matheesha Pathirana ruled out of third T20I with hamstring injury