Tigers in final

Plenty of drama, a bit of 'naagin' dance and a cricket thriller - Bangladesh looked to stamp their own Twenty20 brand of cricket on the back of Mahmud-ullah's brilliant batting as they beat Sri Lanka by two-wicket in the tension filled decider to reach the final of ongoing Nidhas Trophy.

Tamim Iqbal struck a brilliant half-century to lay the platform but Mahmu-dullah hogged the spotlight by stroking a magnificent six off his toes to seal the win in the penultimate delivery of the game.  Finisher Mahmudullah rises above final-over drama as for a few moments, play came to a halt with the Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan launching a protest after two bouncers were bowled to Mustafizur Rahman.  Furious Shakib even called the Bangladeshi batsmen back.

When Mustafizur got out, a couple of subs from the Bangladesh substitutes, in yellow tees, came out and got into an altercation with Thisara Perera. That's what Shakib, and the unbeaten Mahmud-ullah, are not happy about. Was the debate about the height of the ball, is it? Looks like it.

Apparently, the square leg umpire stretched his arm to signal a no-ball, but eventually they deemed it as a legal delivery once Mustafiz got run out. That seemed to have raised temperatures in the Bangladesh dressing room and thus, Shakib fumed at the umpires before asking his batsmen to walk back to the dressing room. Mahmudullah's 43 off 18 deliveries stunned Sri Lanka as Bangladesh clinched a thrilling two-wicket victory to make
their place in the final of Nidahas Trophy in Colombo on Friday.

Bangladesh needed six runs off the final two deliveries and Mahmudullah hit Isuru Udana for a six over at backward square leg to complete a victory for the Tigers.Opener Tamim Iqbal struck 50 off 42 balls while Mushfiqur Rahim made 28 runs in the run-chase of 160 runs as Bangladesh reached 160-8 with one ball to spare.Bangladesh thought to have spoiled their chance when they lost a wicket in the penultimate over that also took Mahudullah off the strike.

Mustafizur Rahman to short pitched deliveries and managed to run himself out in the process, leaving the equation down to 12 off four balls.Skipper Sakib al Hasan called back the team as Bangladesh thought both balls were no-balls. After few drama-filled minutes Bangladesh agreed to continue playing with Mahmudullah back in strike.Mahmudullah responded with a four that brought also Bangladesh back in the contest firmly.

He took two off the next ball before hitting the epic six that triggered a wild celebration as all Bangladeshi players race to the field and danced cobra-dance, something which they made famous in the tournament. Kusal Perera and Thisara Perera struck fifties as Sri Lanka recovered from 41-5 to score 159-7 against Bangladesh in the crucial encounter of Nidahas Trophy in Colombo on Friday.

Perera made 61 off 40 balls while Thisara hit 58 off 37 balls as the pair added 97 runs in 61 deliveries for the sixth wicket to help Sri Lanka scoring a challenging total after they were sent to bat first.Skipper Sakib al Hasan, who made a comeback in the squad, gave the Tigers the first breakthrough as he removed opener Danushka Gunathilaka for four in the third over.

Mustafiz dismissed Kusal Mendis (11) and Dasun Shanaka (0) in between his three deliveries in two overs and Upul Tharanga was run out for five in the middle of these wickets.Mehedi Hasan removed Jeevan Mendis for three in the ninth over to add more worries to Sri Lankan den.

Mustafizur Rahman bagged two wickets while Sakib, Mehedi, Soumya Sarkar and Rubel Hossain claimed one wicket apiece for the Tigers.The winner joined India in the tri-series final on Sunday at the same venue.

-Atif Azam, AA