Spinners Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera shared six wickets between them to help Sri Lanka take command of the first Test against a struggling Bangladesh on a rain-hit day three in Galle on Thursday. The visitors, replying to Sri Lanka's first innings total of 494, were all out for 312 on the third day, trailing the hosts by a massive 182 runs.
Herath took the final wicket just two balls into the last session before rain stopped play, finishing on 3-72. Off-break bowler Perera chipped in with 3-53. Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim made a dogged half-century and shared 106 runs for the seventh wicket with Mehedi Hasan, ensuring the visitors avoided the follow-on. Herath bowled his Bangladesh counterpart Mushfiqur on the stroke of the tea break for 85 after the latter took their score past the 300 mark. Perera broke Mushfiqur's stubborn partnership with Mehedi when he trapped the young all-rounder plumb leg-before for 41 runs.
The spinner also took the wicket of Taskin Ahmed off the next ball with a successful review after his appeal for lbw was turned down by umpire Marais Erasmus. Mushfiqur and Mehedi's efforts came after Bangladesh lost four wickets in the opening session that had threatened to derail their innings completely. "Our boys stuck to the plan extremely well and came out well this morning with the determination to try and win that first session, which they did well," said Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford.
SCOREBOARD Sri Lanka 1st innings 494 (K. Mendis 194, A. Gunaratne 85, N. Dickwella 75, D. Perera 51; Mehedi Hasan 4-113)
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Bangladesh 1st innings (overnight 133-2)
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T. Iqbal run out 57
S. Sarkar c Kumara b Lakmal 71
M. Haque lbw b Perera 7
M. Rahim b Herath 85
S. Al Hasan c Dickwella b Sandakan 23
Mahmudullah b Kumara 8
L. Das c Gunaratne b Herath 5
M. Hasan lbw b Perera 41
T. Ahmed lbw b Perera 0
S. Roy not out 0
M. Rahman c Mendis b Herath 4
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Extras: (lb6, w3, nb2) 11
Total: (all out, 97.2 overs) 312
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Fall of wickets: 1-118 (Tamim), 2-127 (Mominul), 3-142 (Soumya), 4-170 (Shakib), 5-184 (Mahmudullah), 6-192 (Liton), 7-298 (Mehedi), 8-298 (Taskin), 9-308 (Mushfiqur), 10-312 (Mustafizur)
Bowling: S. Lakmal 14-0-42-1, L. Kumara 16-1-70-1 (w3), D. Perera 19-4-53-3 (nb1), R. Herath 26.2-4-72-3, L. Sandakan 22-5-69-1 (nb1)
Toss: Sri Lanka
Umpires - Aleem Dar (PAK) and Marais Erasmus (SA)
TV umpire - Sundaram Ravi (IND)
Match referee - Andy Pycroft (ZIM).
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