Kusal Perera struck a quick-fire half century to steer Sri Lanka to a six-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first of their two-match Twenty20 International series in Colombo yesterday.
Perera, who passed a late fitness test to be included for the game, hit 77 off 53 balls as Sri Lanka reached 158-4 in 18.5 overs after restricting Bangladesh to 155-6.
Sri Lanka never lost their grip on the match after Perera and captain Upul Tharanga put on 65 runs in the opening stand, though a double strike by Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza slowed their progress.
Mashrafe, who announced his retirement from Twenty20 International cricket before the game, removed Tharanga for 24 and took a catch off his own bowling to dismiss Dilshan Munaweera for eight.
Perera, who smashed nine fours and a six, was out in the penultimate over hoisting a catch to Soumya Sarkar at mid-off off Taskin Ahmed but Seekkuge Prasanna (22 not out) and Thisara Perera ( four not) ended the game in the same over.
“I tried to finish the game.(I) had a couple of injuries but recovered well,” said Kusal Perera. “Every player has a couple of bad patches, (you) have to get over it, do the hard work and get out of bad patches.” 
Mashrafe finished with 2-32 but other Bangladeshi bowlers struggled as Sri Lanka took a 1-0 lead in the series.
“The way we batted in the first six overs was brilliant, but we lost too many wickets in the middle... we need to be more calculating while batting,” Mashrafe said after the match.
Malinga finished with 2-38. Tharanga praised Malinga for his efforts.
“Malinga is one of the best bowlers in the world,” he said. The second and final match of the series will be held at the same ground on April 6.

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 158 for 4 (Kusal 77, Mashrafe 2-32) beat Bangladesh 155 for 6 (Mosaddek 34*, Malinga 2-38) by six wickets