Mendis, Karunaratne headline productive batting day for Sri Lanka

Six double-digit scores of which three were fifty-plus ones and three fifty-plus partnerships of which two were over 90, including one century stand, put Sri Lanka in a position of strength at the end of Day 1 of the second Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram. The visitors ended the day at 314/4 after opting to bat at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Saturday (March 30).

Sri Lanka’s productive day with the bat was set up initially by a 96-run opening partnership between Nishan Madushka and Dimuth Karunaratne, who batted more than 28 overs to negate whatever little help Bangladesh thought they could get with the new ball. Bangladesh even brought on Shakib Al Hasan as early as the seventh over but he too couldn’t make an impact.

It didn’t help that Bangladesh missed a few opportunities, with a couple of catches going down and a run-out chance missed, as Sri Lanka finished the opening session without losing a wicket.

Bangladesh finally tasted some success in the second over after the break as Madushka was run out for 57. But another period of toil ensued as Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis put on 114 for the second wicket. Karunaratne scored in a brisk fashion while Mendis struck at a fair clip too, with the pair getting regular boundaries apart from a good dose of singles and twos to run Bangladesh ragged.

To Bangladesh’s relief, another wicket came against the run of play as Karunaratne missed out on a hundred, dismissed for 86 after dragging a Hasan Mahmud delivery onto the stumps a few overs before Tea.

Sri Lanka, having already gone past 200 before the second session ended, continued to make good progress with Mendis and Angelo Mathews batting positively. Mendis even struck three fours in an over off Mahmud while Mathews hit Taijul Islam straight down the ground for a six, with the batters going on to bring up a half-century stand.

But Mendis’s outing came to an end on 93 when he pushed at a delivery from Shakib to hand a catch to slip. Mathews was dismissed a few overs later by Mahmud but Dinesh Chandimal’s unbeaten 34 and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva’s 15 not out helped Sri Lanka end the day without any further damage.

Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 314/4 in 90 overs (Nishan Madushka 57, Kusal Mendis 83, Dimuth Karunaratne 86, Angelo Mathews 23, Dinesh Chandimal 34*; Hasan Mahmud 2-64, Shakib Al Hasen 1-20) vs Bangladesh.