VERDVITSri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 63 runs to win Asian Games cricket bronze
Tharindu Ratnayake’s 65 and a shared bowling effort carried Sri Lanka from 21/4 to a 63-run win over Bangladesh in Nisshin.
Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 63 runs in the men’s Asian Games cricket bronze-medal match at Nisshin on October 3, 2026. Sri Lanka made 165/9 from 20 overs and dismissed Bangladesh for 102 in 17.3 overs, securing the bronze medal after a match that changed direction through Tharindu Ratnayake’s counterattacking innings and a collective bowling display. [1] [3]
Key points
- Sri Lanka recovered from 21/4 and 54/5 to reach 165/9 in 20 overs. [1] [2]
- Tharindu Ratnayake scored 65 from 32 balls, with seven fours and five sixes. [1] [3]
- Ratnayake and Sahan Arachchige added 93 for the sixth wicket during the recovery. [1] [2]
- Bangladesh were bowled out for 102 in 17.3 overs; Nasum Ahmed top-scored with 26. [1] [3]
- Sri Lanka’s four principal wicket-takers returned two wickets each in the chase. [1] [2]
A difficult start turns into a defendable total
Sri Lanka’s innings began under immediate pressure. ESPN’s report records the side at 21 for four after four overs, while Cricbuzz also places the first major collapse at 21/4 and says the score fell to 54/5 in the 11th over. [1] [2] The early wickets left captain Sahan Arachchige and the lower middle order with the task of rebuilding rather than simply accelerating a settled innings.
Arachchige first helped Ashen Bandara add 33 for the fifth wicket. After Bandara fell, Ratnayake took control of the tempo. His 65 came from 32 balls, with seven fours and five sixes, according to ESPN’s report and the detailed scorecard. [1] [3] Cricbuzz’s article gives the same score and boundary count but states that the innings used 35 balls. Because the ESPN report and scorecard agree on 32, this account uses 32 and does not treat Cricbuzz’s differing ball count as settled. [1] [2] [3]
The sixth-wicket partnership with Arachchige supplied the decisive recovery. ESPN records it as a 93-run stand from 46 balls, while Cricbuzz describes the same 93-run stand as coming from 44 balls. [1] [2] The run total is consistent across the two reports; the conflicting delivery count is not material to the result and is therefore not repeated here. Sri Lanka scored 165/9, a total that gave its bowlers a substantial target to defend. [1] [3]
Bangladesh’s chase unravels
Sri Lanka carried its pressure into the first over of Bangladesh’s reply. ESPN reports that Saif Hassan, Tanzid Hasan and Litton Das all fell without scoring, leaving Bangladesh in severe trouble early. [1] The scorecard records Bangladesh’s total as 102 all out in 17.3 overs, confirming the completed innings and the 63-run margin. [3]
There was a brief attempt to rebuild through Parvez Hossain Emon, Towhid Hridoy and Yasir Ali, but Bangladesh could not sustain a partnership. ESPN’s report says the side fell from 50/5 to 72/8 over 18 deliveries. [1] Nasum Ahmed made 26 from 28 balls, the highest Bangladesh score, while Yasir contributed 21 and Emon 20 in the scorecard. [1] [3] Those efforts reduced the scale of the collapse but did not put the chase back on course.
The wickets were shared rather than concentrated in one bowler. ESPN lists Nuwan Thushara, Ratnayake, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth and Wanuja Sahan with two wickets apiece. [1] Cricbuzz gives the same four two-wicket returns and identifies Ratnayake’s figures as 2/18. [2] The scorecard also confirms Thushara’s 2/18, Ratnayake’s 2/18 and Viyaskanth’s 2/26; it records Bangladesh’s final total and the result. [3]
The confirmed event record
The match was the third-place playoff in the Asian Games men’s cricket competition, not a preview or an unfinished fixture. ESPN labels it a result and identifies the venue as Nisshin on October 3, while the Cricbuzz scorecard gives the venue more precisely as Korogi Sports Park, Nisshin, with a 9:00 a.m. local start. [1] [3] The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka separately posted that Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 63 runs and claimed the bronze medal in the men’s match. [4]
The completed result is also reported by NDTV in an IANS-syndicated story updated on October 3 at 12:42 p.m. IST. That account independently describes the 63-run win, Sri Lanka’s 165/9, Bangladesh’s 102 and Ratnayake’s 65 from 32 balls. [5] The NOC post is useful as an event-authority confirmation, while ESPN and the scorecard supply the detailed cricket record. None of these sources supports calling this a live or breaking match on October 9; it is a historical result being reported after the event.
Why the result matters
Sri Lanka’s bronze was secured by two linked phases: recovery with the bat and disciplined variation with the ball. The score of 165/9 would have been modestly built if the innings had followed its opening four overs, but Ratnayake’s acceleration and the partnership with Arachchige changed the match’s shape. [1] [2] Bangladesh’s early top-order collapse then allowed Sri Lanka to defend that total without the game reaching the final over. [1] [3]
The result also provides a clear, bounded record of the campaign’s final placement. Sri Lanka finished third in the men’s cricket event after defeating Bangladesh in the bronze-medal playoff; Bangladesh finished fourth in that event by virtue of the defeat. [1] [4] This report makes no claim about later fixtures, selection consequences or future rankings because the reviewed sources do not establish those developments. It also does not assign a player-of-the-match award: the source set confirms Ratnayake’s all-round contribution but does not provide an official award designation.
The publishable account is therefore the completed match result, its verified scoreline and the documented turning points. The article keeps the permanent slug supplied for this item, treats October 3 as the match date, and leaves the site’s first-publication timestamp for the release process rather than using the private draft’s created timestamp.