Bangladesh were 12 for no loss after Sri Lanka declared with a lead of 466 runs with eight over remaining before stumps on day four of the second Test at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Friday.
Tamim Iqbal (7) and Shamsur Rahman (4) will start the morning initiations after having survived the last eight overs without damage. Bangladesh require 455 more runs to win on the final day, Saturday.Earlier, Dinesh Chandimal (100*) held one end firmly to see Sri Lanka across the 450-run lead with Angelo Mathews (43*).
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews declared right after Chandimal got to his third Test century off 178 with only four boundaries. His fourth wicket partnership with Kumar Sangakkara was worth 145 runs.
Finally, he also paired with the skipper for a 82 run fifth-wicket partnership to extend the lead.
Kumar Sangakkara (105) was again the star of the day, becoming the second batsman to score a century after a triple century in the same Test after Graham Gooch, who holds the highest runs scored in a Test match (456)
Sangakkara, achieving the highest runs scored by a Sri Lankan batsman in a Test match (424) surpassing Mahela Jayawardena (307), was bowled by Shohag Gazi in the final session of the day.
He cracked Shohag Gazi for a six to bring up his 35th Test fifty. To the hosts’ terrible disappointment, Sangakkara was dropped on 36 at deep midwicket by Nasir Hossain off Shakib Al Hasan.
Mahela Jayawardena (11), the only batsman to be sent back in the second session, was given lbw off Shakib Al Hasan in a delivery that pitched within the stumps but appeared to have drifted down the leg. The umpire might have sealed his fate as the ball had straightened slightly after pitching.
Mahmudullah had a great first session, sending both the openers back before 50 runs on board.
He struck in the 13th over, dismissing Dimuth Karunaratne (15). Nasir Hossain grabbed a spectacular catch at slip.
Mahmudullah struck again in his next over, trapping first Test centurion Kaushal Silva (29) leg before wicket.
Morning’s play resumed with Bangladesh on 409 for eight. The hosts were bowled out after adding just 17 runs to their overnight score to finish the innings on 426.
Hosts’ innings survived 29 balls in the morning. After Mahmudullah was sent packing in the first over of the morning, Tigers chances of putting up a bigger score dimmed.
Ajantha Mendis dismissed Mahmuddullah, caught by Silva at short leg. He struck again in his very next over, sending back Al-Amin Hossain (9) to secure a hefty 161-run lead.
Mendis was most successful among the visiting bowlers with a career-best six-wicket haul spending just 99 runs.
Earlier, maiden tons for the overnight pair of Shamsur Rahman and Imrul Kayes had energised Bangladesh and their crowd in the morning, but by stumps, Sri Lanka’s industrious spinners had extracted enough dismissals to stay on track for victory, despite the visitors’ abject fielding. A late Ajantha Mendis double-strike swung the match decisively in Sri Lanka’s favour, after the Bangladesh middle-order provided fitful resistance. The hosts are still 178 runs adrift in the first innings, with two wickets in hand.
Nasir Hossain and Mahmudullah had put on 46 together as the sun began to set, but with only 21 balls remaining until the day’s quota was done, a wide ball from Mendis failed to bounce, and Dinesh Chandimal collected what the umpire believed was an under-edge. Bangladesh’s last recognised batsman Sohag Gazi was struck in front of middle and off stump next ball, forcing his prompt departure, and Mendis was only denied a hat-trick by unexpected bounce, which may have taken the ball that struck the new batsman’s front pad above the stumps.
Shamsur and Imrul were ruled by caution, then adventure, in the morning before giving way to impatience when they surrendered after lunch. They had only strayed, though, after having adding 232 runs, the second-highest Test partnership for Bangladesh, which was also the best for the second wicket. The wicketless first session appeared to unlock the spirit Bangladesh had lacked in the first six days of the series, even if the batsmen who followed were occasionally guilty of taking hair-brained options.
There were moments of imprudence at the top of the day, but the batsmen largely eschewed ambition and strove to reacclimatise themselves to the surface, in the first hour, dulling Sri Lanka’s earnest start in the process. The first 15 overs of the day brought only 45 runs, but after that Imrul and Shamsur took to punishing a quickly-worsening bowling effort. They would advance at 5.4 runs an over for the remainder of the session.
The shift in Bangladesh’s approach from the first Test was most evident in the way they dealt with Sri Lanka’s short balls. Bouncers had been their undoing in Mirpur, but aided by a surface that did not reward short-pitched bowling, both batsmen hooked and pulled judiciously, and often. Shamsur’s restraint was as laudably as his aggression. In the 37th over, he hooked consecutive Suranga Lakmal balls with authority, but when the bowler delivered a third short ball outside off stump, the batsman did not offer the same stroke.
Imrul’s advances were more on the off side, as he laid into a visibly disorganised Nuwan Pradeep. Width was punished repeatedly and emphatically, in the arc between backward-point and cover, and the balls at the body only fared slightly better, with Imrul reprising the pull shot that had been profitable for him on the previous evening.
If the morning session had made clear the immense talent in Bangladesh cricket, the period after resumption laid out some of its enduring frustrations. Shamsur completed his maiden hundred, in his second Test, with a strike through the covers, but seeing his partner exult at triple figures seemed only to make Imrul more nervous.
On 95, he faced an over from Mendis replete with both cringe-inducing anxiety and incredible good fortune. Perhaps hoping to bash his way to the ton, Imrul advanced to Mendis, found the ball had pitched wide, and offered a gentle top-edged lob to Kithuruwan Vithanage who promptly shelled it. Becoming even more fidgety, Imrul was beaten by one that spun away from him next ball, then when he spotted the kind of short, wide delivery that he had imperiously played along the ground all morning, the batsman slapped it in the air to Vithanage, again.
At the other end, new-centurion Shamsur swung his bat in frustration at the timidity of his partner’s dismissal, when the catch was completed. Only, when Shamsur turned around, the umpire had his arm out for a no-ball. Neither the Sri Lanka fielders nor either batsman quite seemed to believe it. By Mendis’ next over, Imrul had girded himself enough to bat more intelligently. He blasted a short-wide Lakmal ball to collect his own hundred.
Just as the two should have consolidated their gains however, Shamsur offered an untimely slog to Mendis on 106 and was bowled. He left to a standing ovation, which he had deserved after his morning’s work. But his attitude after both he and Kayes reached hundreds perhaps merited some reproach, given Bangladesh were still 355 runs short of Sri Lanka’s total.
Imrul was less cavalier, but when Sri Lanka strung together several tight overs, the limits of his patience were also soon discovered. On 115, he ran at Mendis and played an almighty, hamstring-twinging slog, and had his off stump pegged back. Worryingly for Bangladesh, he needed to be carried off the field on a stretcher, casting severe doubts on his further participation in the match.
Sri Lanka’s spinners found their groove in the second session, and though poor balls still frustrated efforts to build pressure, they managed enough turn and variation from the surface to prevent another big stand. Dilruwan Perera was the more accurate bowler, wheeling away on middle and off, and turning the ball away from Bangladesh’s left-handed batsmen. He removed Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim after they had made promising starts, either side of tea.
Shakib Al Hasan played with characteristic enterprise for his 50, though he had first batted with reservation, scoring 1 from his first 25 balls. Soon he began to pick off the poor balls, particularly those wide of the stumps, as he flayed nine boundaries on the off side. He had seemed set for a bigger innings himself, but Perera, under Angelo Mathews’ guidance, ambushed him with a pair of short covers. The bowler floated one up outside off stump and Shakib’s drive, perfectly timed, was snaffled half a metre from the turf by Dimuth Karunaratne.
