Sadeera Samarawickrama is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who represents the island nation in all formats of the game. The 28-year-old, who was born in Colombo, made his international debut in a Test match against Pakistan in 2017. The dashing wicketkeeper-batter has played eight Test matches and scored 281 runs at a strike rate of 23.41 thus far.

Samarawickrama excelled with the bat, slamming a half-century in Sri Lanka's Asia Cup Super Four match against Bangladesh on September 9 at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo. The 28-year-old fell short of a century but ended up scoring his career-best ODI score of 93 runs off 72 balls, which included eight boundaries and two maximums. This was his consecutive fifty against Bangladesh and fifth half-century overall in the 50-over format.

Samarawickrama, came to at number four while Sri Lanka were at 108 with the loss of two wickets. The youngster went berserk in the final 10 overs as the hosts scored 81 runs. However, he fell short against Taskin Ahmed in the last ball of the innings.

Samarawickrama was able to pile up 550 runs at an average of 34.37 while playing in his 20th ODI game. The 82 runs he scored against Ireland earlier this year was his previous best total in the format.

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 21 runs

Batting first after losing the toss, Sri Lanka posted 257/9, thanks to Sadeera Samarawickrama’s tenacious performance. Apart from him, wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis contributed significantly by scoring a fifty. Taskin Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud both took three wickets for the Shakib Al Hasan-led side, while Shoriful Islam took two.

Defending 257, Bangladesh had got off to a solid start with the openers Mohammad Naim and Mehidy Hasan adding a 50-plus stand. However, Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka's twin blow collapsed Bangladesh's middle over. Then Towhid Hridoy (82) and Mushfiqur Rahim (29) provided the squad with a sign of hope by contributing 72 runs for the fifth wicket. However, Shanaka, Matheesha Pathirana, and Maheesh Theekshana picked three wickets each as Bangladesh were restricted to 236 in 48.1 overs.


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