Sri Lanka continue dominance in second Test

Saturday, 28 June 2025 01:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Debutant Sonal Dinusha is cleaned up by Naeem Hasan for 11

Taijul Islam took five wickets – his 17th in an innings in Test cricket

Dhananjaya de Silva rejoices taking the wicket of his vis-à-vis Najmul Hossain

All set to wrap up Test and take series today

Kusal Mendis celebrates his 22nd Test fifty

It was another day of dominance by Sri Lanka yesterday as they ended the third day of the second Test four wickets away from beating Bangladesh and taking the two-match series 1-0 at the SSC grounds.

Facing a big deficit of 211 in the first innings Bangladesh ended the day at 115-6 in their second innings, still 96 runs away from avoiding an innings defeat. Sri Lanka continuing their first innings made 458 in reply to Bangladesh’s 247.

After seamer Asitha Fernando had removed opener Anamul Haque for 19 in the seventh over, it was the Sri Lankan spinners who held centre stage for the rest of the day although Asitha and Vishwa Fernando came back to bowl short second spells.

Bangladesh openers started off on a positive note in the second innings, however, a loose shot by Anamul resulted in his downfall at the stroke of tea.

After that Prabath Jayasuriya removed first innings top scorer Islam for 12 and then Sri Lankan skipper Dhananjaya de Silva struck twice in the four overs he bowled. He got Mominul Haque’s wicket for the second time in the Test, and trapped his vis-à-vis Najmul Hossain lbw a few overs later.

Bangladesh was in a spot of bother at the time at 70-4, when Litton Das and Mushfiq Rahim got together and built a determined partnership of 30, when Jayasuriya struck again to clean up Mushfiqur with a lovely delivery that crashed into his off-stump.

Mehidy Miraz didn’t survive too long and was trapped lbw towards the end of the day for 11 leaving Das to bat with the tail and try to avoid an innings defeat.

The day however started well for Bangladesh who took four wickets in the morning session but Sri Lanka also ensured they gained a sizeable first innings lead.

Taijul Islam got a couple of early wickets in the form of Prabath Nissanka for 158 scored off 254 balls (19 fours) and Dhananjaya de Silva cheaply for 7, while Nahid Rana removed the nightwatchman Jayasuriya soon after.

The two Mendis’ Kamindu and Kusal built a steady partnership of 49 when Nayeem Hasan got the breakthrough by breaching Kamindu Mendis’ defence. That Sri Lanka managed to gain a sizeable lead was due to the pivotal knock by Kusal Mendis who looked positive throughout his innings of 84 off 87 balls (8 fours, 2 sixes). His innings ended tragically by a run out as he tried to go for an impossible second run to retain the strike. In trying to avoid getting run out Kusal dived and hurt himself and didn’t take the field during Bangladesh’s second innings. He was assessed as having pain and receiving treatment from the team physio. If the pain persists an MRI scan will be performed on Kusal, states an SLC media release. Lahiru Udara took over duties as keeper with Pavan Rathnayake as the substitute fielder.

Taijul Islam was by far Bangladesh’s best bowler, and it reflected in his figures of 5/131, the 17th time he has taken five or more wickets in a Test innings. Naeem Hasan the off-spinner picked up three.

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