Dhaka – Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim and young all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz are the players hold their nerves on 3rd day’s play on the way to 1st innings collection of 312 against Sri Lanka in the first Test of Joy Bangla Cup series at Galle International Stadium on Thursday.Replying to Sri Lanka’s 1st innings collection 494 runs, Bangladesh resumed the 1st innings with overnight score of 133/2 in 46 overs and played nearly two sessions on the day with their eight wickets adding 179 runs more in 51.2 overs to give their opponents 182 runs lead before the rain washed away the day’s remaining session.Mushfiqur and Miraz played 24.4 overs, was almost half of the 3rd day’s overs delivered by Lankan bowlers, in the 7th pair for 106 runs that greatly helped avoid follow on. The life fueling pair was started from a dismal figure of 192/6 in 65.3 overs and ended after raising a decent figure of 298/7 in 90.1 overs, before Miraz was trapped lbw by Dilruwan Perera.Overnight batsman Mushfiqur played an innings of 161 balls for top-scoring 85, including eight boundaries and one six, before being bowled by Lanaka skipper Rangana Herath at 308/9 in 95.4 overs.Miraz stayed for 41 off 77 balls, including five boundaries, while Shakib Al Hasan was added quick 23 runs on the day.Bangladesh’s another overnight batsman Soumya Sarkar, started the day with previous 66 runs and faced 4 balls to add 5 more runs for an innings of 71 off 137 balls, including eight boundaries and one over boundary.Soumya, the day’s first food for Lankan bowlers, was caught by Lahiru Kumara off Suranga Lakmal bowling at 142/3 in 49 overs.After the departure of Soumya, Mushfiqur continued carefully, but the three other middle order batsmen — Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah and Liton Kumar Das — had dishearten the captain as all the three were out within a span of 50 runs in 16.3 overs (from 142/3 in 49 overs to 192/6 in 65.3 overs).Dilruwan Perera and Rangana Herath captured three wickets each in the innings for 53 and 72 runs respectively. Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara and Lakshan Sandakan took one wicket each for 42, 70 and 72 runs in the innings. Brief Score:Sri Lanka 1st innings: 494/10 in 129.1 overs; Kusal Mendis 194, Asela Gunaratne 85, Niroshan Dickwella 75, Dilruwan Perera 51, Mehedi Hasan Miraz 4/113, Mustafizur Rahman 2/68.Bangladesh 1st innings: 312/10 in 97.2 overs (overnight 133/2 in 46 overs); Mushfiqur Rahim 85, Soumya Sarkar 71, Tamim Iqbal 57, Mehedi Hasan Miraz 41, Shakib Al Hasan 23, Dilruwan Perera 3/53, Rangana Herath 3/72.
