Rival skippers Dimuth Karunaratne and Mominul Haque bump fists. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will play the two-Test series for the Walton trophy.

• Ends first day in strong position – 302/2

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Was Sri Lanka fooled by the greenness of the pitch? That was the question the home team were left asking at the end of the first day of the first Test where Bangladesh, spurred by a maiden Test century from 22-year-old Najmul Hossain Shanto, dominated proceedings at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

Notwithstanding the amount of grass left on the pitch meant to help the Lankan seamers, Bangladesh took a big gamble in choosing to bat first after winning the toss; and what an astute decision it turned out to be at the end of the day when they finished on an imposing 302/2.

Shanto, who has batted for 382 minutes, was unbeaten on 126* off 288 balls (14 fours, one six) and Mominul Haque’s 208 minutes at the wicket has yielded 64 runs off 150 balls (six fours) and their unfinished partnership was worth 150 off 309 balls, which is Bangladesh’s best for the third wicket against Sri Lanka.

For Sri Lanka, whose captain Dimuth Karunaratne said that he would have fielded first had he won the toss, it turned out to be a hard grind as the pitch hardly offered the movement to the quicks and eventually turned out to be a flat batting track which could later help the Bangladeshi spinners.

The Bangladeshi batsmen, especially opener Tamim Iqbal and Shanto, complimented the decision to bat first by scoring freely and overcoming any early movement the pitch could provide the bowlers. The two came together in a wonderful partnership of 144 off 219 balls after Vishwa Fernando (2/61), the only successful bowler for Sri Lanka, had got an early breakthrough by turning over an lbw decision against Saif Hassan in his favour in his first over.

Tamim, Bangladesh’s leading run getter in Tests, took on the Lankan quicks from the outset and capitalised on their mistakes as they tried too hard in searching for movement and wickets; thereby erring in line and length. The bowlers managed to put a restriction on the Bangladesh scoring rate in the final session when the second new ball was taken but they were unable to separate the third wicket pair of Shanto and Haque who batted throughout, not offering the Lankans a semblance of a chance on the placid pitch.

There were easy pickings for Tamim as he pounced on every loose delivery the Lankan bowlers bowled to hit 15 fours in his 185-minute innings for 90 off 101 balls. Shanto’s solid defence at the opposite end enabled Tamim to go for his shots and he made the most of it, but was an agonising ten runs short of what would have been his first hundred against Sri Lanka. The left-hander, who had played a faultless innings up to that point, had a momentary lapse of concentration and attempted to guide a ball from Fernando only to offer a sharp catch to the only slip in place, Lahiru Thirimanne, to depart in dismay.

Shanto, who had only one fifty from six Tests coming into this match, continued unabated prospering from a dropped catch to wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella off Dhananjaya de Silva at 28 to bring up his maiden hundred in style off 235 balls with a cover driven boundary off the bowler. He batted outstandingly well, displaying good Test temperament and proper technique, and more importantly was in no hurry to score his runs but waited for the loose balls. With his captain Haque, Shanto raised another century partnership. Haque continued to pile further frustrations on the Lankan bowlers by completing his 14th Test fifty off 117 balls.

Early in the day, Sri Lanka took the difficult decision to leave out Dinesh Chandimal to make way for Angelo Mathews’ return to the side after missing the West Indies series. Chandimal had a pretty ordinary series in the West Indies scoring just two fifties in 10 innings across all three formats, when as a batsman of his experience, he should have contributed more. Mathews too didn’t have a great white ball series in West Indies before making an early return home, but in his last four Test innings against England, he had scores of 110, 5, 27 and 71 to sway the decision in his favour.

Tamim Iqbal and Najmul Hossain Shanto during their 144-run partnership for the second wicket

Our bowlers didn’t hit the right lengths: Grant Flower