Bangladesh lose half of side in first 40 minutes

Hosts Bangladesh lost five batters before the first drinks break, which is taken after one hour, of the second Test match against Sri Lanka at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka, on Monday.

The fall of wickets began in the very first over when Mahmudul Hasan Joy (0) was bowled out by Kasun Rajitha in the second ball.

It was a length ball around off. Mahmudul was rooted to the crease as the ball was angled in from wide on the crease, it pitched and straightened and found the gap between bat and pad to crash into the stumps, says cricinfo commentary.

Once again Mahmudul’s out proved that the batters must not keep gap between the ball and the bat during a defensive shot.

Like Joy, his opening partner Tamim Iqbal also returned to pavilion without disturbing the scorer in the very next over. The experienced opener, who was just 19 runs away to complete his 5000 runs as second Bangladeshi in Test cricket, got a leading edge that was caught by Praveen Jayawickrama at point at the ball of Asitha Fernando.

Bangladesh was tottering at 6/2 when skipper Mominul joined Najmul Hossain Shanto, who hit a four in the first over. The two tried to rescue Bangladesh but could not do much. Their 10-run partnership was broken when the Tiger captain (9) edged and caught behind at the ball of Asitha Fernando in the 6th over.

With Mominul’s return to pavilion, Mushfiqur Rahim, who completed his 5000 Test runs as first Bangladeshi player, joined Najmul Hossain Shanto in the middle. But their 8-run partnership came to an end as a length delivery of Rajitha came back in sharply and uprooted the stumps of Shanto.

Rajitha was on hat-trick as ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was out in the next ball of the seventh over.

Mushfiqur Rahim (22) and Litton Das (26) remained unbeaten with a partnership of 42 runs as of filing of this report at the lunch break. Bangladesh were 66/5.

Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque won the toss and chose to bat first in the second and final Test of the series in the morning. Earlier the captain assumed a victory in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, given their track record and condition here.

Moreover, their domination in the drawn first Test in Chattogram gave the side an additional confidence, Mominul said Sunday.