Sri Lanka display resilience after Galle

Thursday, 26 June 2025 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka’s 170th Test player Sonal Dinusha relishes taking his first Test wicket

Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim is given a life as he is dropped by Lahiru Udara

Shadman Islam kept Bangladesh’s innings ticking with 46

Capture eight Bangladesh wickets for 220 on rain-hit opening day

Bangladesh won their second straight toss and chose to bat first but unlike at Galle, where they posted a pretty daunting first innings total, things did not pan out the way they expected, with the Sri Lankan bowlers dominating over the bat on the opening day of the second cricket Test at the SSC Grounds yesterday.

By stumps, when only 71 overs were possible due to rain, Bangladesh had limped to 220-8 with none of their batsmen being able to get to a fifty. They lost a couple of wickets in the first session, lost three wickets in the post-lunch session, and a further three in the final session as well. Opener Shadman Islam was the top-scorer earlier in the day, with a solid 46 off 93 balls (7 fours) and there were a few handy contributions by Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, and Mehidy Hasan.

It was a case of the other batsmen not converting the good starts as they did at Galle. The reason for it was a good collective effort by the Sri Lankan bowlers who did a splendid job despite the fielders putting down a few chances, which, thankfully, did not prove to be quite expensive.

Sri Lanka could have easily kept Bangladesh to a lower score if a few chances did not go a-begging. Mushfiqur, one of the centurions at Galle, was dropped at deep mid-wicket by Lahiru Udara and an outside edge also eluded the fielder at wide slip off Vishwa Fernando. Mushfiqur rode his luck on a couple of occasions. Litton Das also lived a charmed life in the brief period he was at the wicket, with Prabath Jayasuriya making a real muddle of a return catch.

Early in the day, opener Anamul Haque was dropped behind the wicket but he wasn’t able to capitalise on that mistake as he was cleaned up by Asitha Fernando in the fifth over.

A handy partnership of 38 followed between the two left-handed batters Shadman Islam and Mominul Haque, but just when it was building up, Dhananjaya de Silva, bringing himself on, broke the stand by removing Mominul.

Pacies Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando were both disciplined and they had two wickets apiece to show for their efforts. But the biggest highlight for Sri Lanka was 24-year-old debutant Sonal Dinusha who took two key wickets – Das and Mushfiqur – who were involved in the most productive partnership of the innings – 67 for the fifth. Dinusha also dried up the runs to finish with 2/22 off 9 overs and he also picked up his first Test wicket – that of Das – which incidentally was also his 100th in first-class cricket. In some way, it was quite a memorable day for him after receiving his Test cap prior to the start of play from Kusal Mendis.

Sri Lanka will be pretty pleased with their effort yesterday as they have sunk into the Bangladesh tail, needing only two more wickets to bowl them out when play commences on the second day today at 9:45 a.m., with a minimum of 98 overs to be bowled.

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