Kumara, Das punished after World Cup spat

The International Cricket Council has punished the Sri Lanka and Bangladesh players involved in a fiery exchange that soured a heated T20 World Cup clash on Sunday.

Sri Lanka quick Lahiru Kumara was fined a quarter of his match fee while Litton Das copped a 15 per cent penalty following an ugly confrontation during Sri Lanka's victory in their Super 12s stage opener in Sharjah.

Tensions had risen after Bangladesh opener Mohammad Naim played a ball back to Sri Lanka's Binura Fernando, only for Fernando to throw the ball back, narrowly missing the batter's head.

When, shortly after, Das was caught off Kumara for 16, the pair were involved in a head-to-head mid-pitch confrontation.

Other players became involved, mostly as peacemakers, before Das left the field.

The ICC announced the fines Monday and imposed one demerit point on each for Level One breaches to its Code of Conduct.

It deemed Kumara to have used "actions and words which provoked an aggressive reaction from the batter" and that Das reacted "aggressively and in a manner which was contrary to the spirit of cricket".

Das later dropped two crucial catches off both Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Charith Asalanka as Sri Lanka chased down Bangladesh's total of 4-171 with seven balls to spare in what was their highest successful run chase in a T20 World Cup.

The Sri Lankan pair went on to compile an 86-run partnership with Rajapaksa, on his 30th birthday, making 53 off 31 balls and Asalanka an unbeaten 80 off 49 balls.

"I am happy to hit a winning knock for my country," said Asalanka.

"When I faced the first ball, it looked like a good pitch and I backed myself to play my natural game. Rajapaksa played a brilliant knock and he changed the momentum."

Sri Lanka began well, recovering from the fourth-ball dismissal of Kusal Perera to reach 1-71 after eight overs.

Then Shakib Al Hasan took two wickets in four balls as Sri Lanka slipped to 4-80 at the mid-point. That made Shakib the T20 World Cup all-time leading wicket-taker with 41, two ahead of Pakistan's Shahid Afridi.

Rajapaksa and Asalanka had to take risks, thanks to Das's drops they got away with them. 

"I thought 171 could be defended," Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah said. "We were in the game 'till the tenth over, but things went wrong for us after that. We will correct that in the next game."

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

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How the teams are grouped

Round 1

Group A: Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Namibia

Group B: Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Oman

Super 12s

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland, A2