Bangladesh spinner Mahedi Hasan bowled a match-winning spell to bowl Bangladesh to a T20I series victory against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Wednesday, July 16.
The off-spinner bowled a spell where he took four wickets for just 11 runs in the final T20I in Colombo. Courtesy of his spell, Sri Lanka only scored 132 runs for seven wickets, which was not enough for them to win the decider.
Tanzid Hasan Tamim led Bangladesh's chase with the bat as he scored an unbeaten 73 runs off 47 balls and anchored the run chase for the visitors. Skipper Litton Das (32 runs off 26 balls) and Towhid Hridoy (27 runs off 25 balls) also made crucial contributions as Bangladesh won their first-ever T20I series win against Sri Lanka.
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Mahedi Hasan's Stellar Numbers Against Sri Lanka
The Tigers lost the Test and the ODI series and made a brilliant comeback in the T20I series to win it 2-1. The Lankans won the first game by seven wickets. The Tigers then won the second by 83 runs and the decider by 8 wickets.
Meanwhile, Hasan with his spell of four wickets for 11 runs broke the record held by former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh for the best figures at the Premadasa Stadium by a visiting spinner in T20Is. Harbhajan bowled a spell of four wickets for 12 runs in the T20 World Cup 2012.
Mahedi Hasan first took the wicket of Kusal Perera as he dismissed him for a golden duck in the second over of the innings. The off-spinner then dismissed  Dinesh Chandimal (4 runs off 5 balls) in the fifth over of Sri Lanka's innings. He then came back to dismiss the Lankan spinner Charith Asalanka (3 runs off 8 balls) and then capped off his spell with the wicket of Pathum Nissanka (46 runs off 39 balls).
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Mahedi Hasan Makes Immediate Impact
Incidentally, this was the first match for the off-spinner in the entire series. He was benched throughout the Test and the ODI series. He replaced Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the Bangladesh ODI skipper and made an immediate impact in the decider.
