Openers Tamim Iqbal and Mamudul Hasan Joy gave Bangladesh an ideal start to their first innings, as the hosts ended the second day of the first Test on 76 without losing any wicket at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Monday.
Tamim and Joy remained unbeaten on 39 and 31 respectively, as the Tigers ended the day trailing the tourists by 321 runs.
Sri Lanka tried four bowlers but couldn’t make any inroads in the 19 overs they bowled in the third session. The Bangladeshi opening duo scored fluently and maintained a run-rate of 4.00 till stumps.
Earlier in the session, Nayeem Hasan completed a six wicket haul to bowl out Sri Lanka for 397 after 153 overs. Angelo Mathews was the star batter for Sri Lanka but fell just one run short of his second Test double ton while Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis made 66 and 54 runs respectively.
Nayeem finished with career best 6-105 while Shakib Al Hasan and Taijul Islam took three and one wicket respectively.
Sri Lanka started the day on 258-4 with Mathews and Chandimal unbeaten on 114 and 34 respectively.
The pair batted for 23.1 overs on the day and looked primed to remain unbroken in the morning session. But Nayeem, who had taken two wickets on the previous day, struck twice in five deliveries, trapping Chandimal LBW and bowling Niroshan Dickwella for three, to reduce the visitors to 323-6.
No more wickets fell in the morning session but in the first over after the break, Shakib struck in successive deliveries to further reduce Sri Lanka to 328-8.
But Mathews remained undeterred and formed small but useful partnerships for the final two wickets to push the total near 400.
Nayeem dismissed Asitha Fernando for one to complete his five-wicket haul after Tea. Vishwa Fernando, who didn’t come out to bat after the Tea break after getting hit on the head by a bouncer from Shoriful Islam in the final ball of the second session, came out to give support to Mathews, who was eight runs away from his double century.
But Mathews fell agonosingly short of the milestone as his attempt to reach the 200 with a boundary backfired and he ended up giving an easy catch to Shakib at square leg.
Bangladesh’s reply had some early stutters, with Tamim getting dropped at slip on a no ball and Joy nearly chopping the ball onto his stumps. But after that they played comfortably on a pitch that is yet to offer anything for the bowlers.
Joy has struck five boundaries while Tamim sent the ball rolling to the fence four times as the Tigers ended the day in a positive way.