Tamim Iqbal’s 10th Test century was followed by unbeaten half-centuries from Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das as Bangladesh finished the third day of the first Test on 318-3 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Tuesday.
The Tigers are still trailing Sri Lanka by 79 runs in the first innings but have two set batters at the middle and a retired hurt Tamim, who is likely to resume his innings on Day 4.
Mushfiq and Liton are batting on 53 and 54 respectively. The pair got together after the Tea break, as Tamim retired hurt on 133 during the interval. They have already added 98 runs for the fifth wicket and brought down the deficit below 100.
Another battle is going on at the middle as Mushfiq and Tamim are inching closer to becoming Bangladesh’s first ever player to accumulate 5000 Test runs. Tamim was ahead in the race but had to stop 19 runs away from the milestone due to severe cramps.
Mushfiq, on the other hand, is just 15 runs away from the milestone and is currently the favourite to win the race to 5000 Test runs.
Bangladesh began the day on 76-0, in reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 397, with Tamim and Mahmudul Hasan Joy unbeaten on 35 and 31 respectively.
The openers started from where they left off and batted through the morning session, adding 81 runs in 28 overs. Both players also completed their respective half-centuries, with Tamim being the aggressor.
Sri Lanka did get a chance to end the stand in the 39th over when Joy miscued a pull shot off pacer Asitha Fernando. But Lasith Embuldeniya dropped the simple catch.
But Joy failed to make use of his life as he gave a faint edge to the keeper off the same bowler soon after the break, which Niroshan Dickwella gladly accepted. Joy’s innings ended on 58.
Tamim, however, carried on in the same manner and ended his three-year-long century drought in Tests in the 51st over by hitting a boundary and taking a single off Asitha.
Sri Lanka then made a concussion substitution when they replaced pacer Vishwa Fernando, who was hit on the head on Day 2, with another pacer Kasun Rajitha. The replacement brought Sri Lanka back in the contest as he dismissed Nazmul Hossain Shanto (one) and skipper Mominul Haque (two) in quick successions to reduce the Tigers to 184-3.
Tamim also had some close shaves in the session, as he got dropped by Dhananjaya de Silva at slip and was given out caught behind, which got overturned after a review.
Batting for a long period under the scorching sun took its toll on the left-hander as he started having cramps in the final overs of the session before finally deciding to retire himself off the field for the day during Tea break.
Liton joined Mushfiq at the middle with the score on 220-3. The pair thwarted whatever the Sri Lankan bowlers threw at them and as time went by they started scoring more freely.
Their solid fifth wicket stand took Bangladesh’s score beyond 300 and has placed them in a position from where they can plan to take a sizable lead on Wednesday and push for a victory on the fifth day.