The lucky stumping
Mushfiqur Rahim's freakish stumping of Lahiru Thirimanne was a reflection of Gary Player's famous words: the harder you practice, the luckier you get. There are very few in the Bangladesh team who train as hard as Mushfiqur, who is usually at training earlier than the rest. He got his slice of luck in the 32nd over, when an Abdur Razzak delivery spun all the way onto his right pad and bounced back onto the stumps, with the batsman, Thirimanne, out of the crease.
The timely misfield
When Nasir Hossain punched the first ball of the 38th over towards mid-on, the whole of Bangladesh held its breath. The fielder got a hand on it, but couldn't stop the ball from trickling along to the rope, confirming Bangladesh's progress to the final and a long night of celebrations in the country.
The bouncer
If Jahurul Islam had been lulled by the two-hour rain break, he got an early wake-up call through a sharp bouncer from Lasith Malinga. Jahurul went for the pull, but the ball was onto him too fast and smacked him on the helmet, popping up towards cover. Sri Lanka were certain the ball had been edged onto the helmet, and were hopping in frustration when the umpire disagreed.
The drop
Sri Lanka's fielding in this series has not been as sharp as it was during the tri-series in Australia. Sachithra Senanayake, one of the better fielders in the side, had a how-did-I-miss-that look on his face after dropping a dolly off Tamim Iqbal in the 18th over. Tamim's drive sent the ball arcing back towards the bowler, at a nice height and just a little to his left. Senanayake had loads of time to see it and end a threatening Tamim-Shakib Al Hasan stand, but somehow managed to clang it.
A prime shot
After two cautious half-centuries to start the tournament, Tamim was back to his customary belligerent self. There were a slew of eye-catching boundaries in his innings, perhaps the best of which was the straight drive past the non-striker to reach his half-century. Even the watching Bangladesh prime-minister Sheikh Hasina approved.
The breach
Nazmul Hossain does not do anything dramatic with the ball. His strength is the slight movement he gets in the air or off the seam, and the ability to throw in an inswinger among a group of balls moving away. In the fourth over, Mahela Jayawardene found out how good the gentle variation is when Nazmul located the gap between bat and pad to uproot the off stump. The last time Jayawardene faced Nazmul was three years ago. On that occasion, Nazmul moved the ball the other way to have Jaywardene caught behind for a golden duck in the sixth over of a famous Sri Lankan collapse.
The big dipper
While Nazmul showed the impact of subtle movement, Nuwan Kulasekara showed that of dramatic swing. He bamboozled opener Nazimuddin with a delivery that landed on a length, well outside off and swerved alarmingly back towards the stumps. Despite the ball snaking in sharply, Nazimuddin looked to chop it through the off side, paying the price by inside-edging onto off stump.
Edited by Dustin Silgardo