Dhaka, Mar 15 – Sri Lanka faced early jolts as Cutter master Mustafizur Rahman and spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz picked up three early wickets in the first hour of Day-1 of the 2nd match of Joy Bangla Cup series at P Sara Oval, Colombo on Wednesday.Mustafiz made the early breakthrough in the Bangladesh’s 100th Test dismissing Lankan opener Dimuth Karunaratne (7 off 32b; 1×4) in the fifth over of the innings.
Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first against visiting Bangladesh in the last Test of their two-match Joy Bangla Cup series at P Sara Oval in Colombo on Wednesday.
Left-hand Karunaratne was caught by Miraz at gully when he was trying to play a cover drive of a Mustafiz outside off stump bowling, leaving the team at 13/1 in 8.4 overs.
Three overs later, Miraz picked up BKG Mendis by delivering a tricky ball which dipped on Mendis as he lunged a long way forward but this one held its line.
Bangladesh’s skipper-cum wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim rode the bounce, collected it cleanly and whipped the bails off. Miraz did his job in the 5th delivery of 3rd spell.
Young spinner Miraz hit again in the 16th over dismissing left-hand batsman Upul Tharanga when the hosts were at 35/3.
Dinesh Chandimal and Asela Gunaratne were batting on 8 and 0 runs respectively till filing this report at 11:50am.
Uncapped all-rounder Mosaddek Hossain was included in the best XI while Imrul Kayes, Sabbir Rahman and Taijul Islam returned the team for the landmark 100th Test replacing Liton Das, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mominul Haque and Taskin Ahmed.
Bangladesh Squad: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (Capt & wk), Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehedi Hasan, Taijul Islam, Subashis Roy and Mustafizur Rahman.
Sri Lanka Squad: FDM Karunaratne, WU Tharanga, BKG Mendis, LD Chandimal, DAS Gunaratne, DM de Silva, N Dickwella (wk), MDK Perera, HMRKB Herath (Capt), RAS Lakmal and PADLR Sandakan. – – UNB
