Bangladesh take first session of landmark Test

Lunch Sri Lanka 70 for 4 (Chandimal 27*, Mehedi 2-32) v Bangladesh
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Fernando: P Sara Oval the most result-oriented venue in the world

The P Sara Oval lived up to its reputation of promising a sporting pitch after seam and spin took effect in the first session of the Sri Lanka-Bangladesh Test match. The home side lost four wickets, played and missed several times and also had one leg-before decision overturned in an eventful first session of a historic Test for the visitors.

It was a fine morning session for Bangladesh: after being presented with a special-edition blazer, the players got down to business with three successive maiden overs to start proceedings. Mustafizur Rahman bowled a challenging six-over opening spell, capped off by the wicket of opener Dimuth Karunaratne (7) in the ninth over. The left-handed batsman drove away from his body as the left-armer plotted to drag him out and hang him for dry. Karunaratne flayed his hands at the ball, and the edge was gulped down by Mehedi Hasan at gully.

Soon, Mehedi got into the act, removing Kusal Mendis, the player-of-the-match from Galle. The delivery in the 12th over drifted slightly away from the charging Mendis, with Mushfiqur Rahim completing the stumping. While it was a standard catch, Mushfiqur’s work behind the stumps had left a lot to be desired in the last several months. He was asked to give up the gloves ahead of the Test series, and only took over after Liton Das was ruled out due to a rib injury on the eve of this game.

Upul Tharanga, who couldn’t time the ball perfectly in the first hour, edged Mehedi to slip where Soumya Sarkar took a straightforward catch.

Lunch was taken four balls into the 28th over after Subashis Roy trapped Asela Gunaratne (13) lbw with the batsman playing all around a full ball. He had been hit on the toe off the previous ball, which may have played on his mind.

Dinesh Chandimal remained unbeaten on 27, and would need to rely on the incoming Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella and Dilruwan Perera to give Sri Lanka a semblance of control back into the game.

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Source: ESPN Crickinfo