Tea Sri Lanka 149 for 5 (Chandimal 54*, Mehedi 2-47) v Bangladesh
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
03:28
Fernando: P Sara Oval the most result-oriented venue in the world
Sri Lanka now have all their hopes pinned on the continued solidity of Dinesh Chandimal and the free flowing Niroshan Dickwella as Bangladesh eked out one wicket in the second session at the P Sara Oval. Chandimal hadn’t struck a boundary throughout the session, moving to an unbeaten 54 while Dickwella went into tea at 11.
It was still a session that continued to produce positive moments for Bangladesh, as they created a number of chances, continuing from a positive first session. There was also an poor review towards the end of the session, but it seemed they were finding themselves in the contest.
Two overs into the post-lunch session, Mushfiqur Rahim couldn’t cleanly collect a Subashis Roy delivery that snuck through Chandimal’s bat and pad although was no conclusive evidence of there being a faint edge.
In between Chandimal’s successful review after the umpire had adjudged him caught-behind in the 39th over, Dhananjaya de Silva started to find the boundary. He struck Shakib Al Hasan over mid-on though he wasn’t fully in control of the shot, and then drove past Mustafizur Rahman. He struck three more fours, whipping his wrists over the ball to take it through midwicket, reverse paddling another and then top edging a pull.
Chandimal meanwhile continued to find trouble. In the 46th over, his top-edged sweep found a diving Mehedi at long-leg but while the batsman waited and the on-field umpire Aleem Dar gave a soft-signal of not out, the replays weren’t conclusive, thereby supporting his decision. In the end Chandimal stayed back, and in the next over reached his 12th half-century.
De Silva however succumbed at the other end, falling to a Taijul Islam delivery that didn’t get up for the pull shot he attempted. It ended a 66-run stand for the fifth wicket, which hampered Sri Lanka’s progress after they were making a comeback into the day’s play.
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 in the morning session and had one leg-before decision overturned in an eventful first hour and a half 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.
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.
The morning session ended in 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.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo