Sri Lanka hit back after rains to capture 5/26

At 38 and still flying, Angelo Mathews takes a diving catch to send back Bangladesh Captain Najmul Hossain for 148

Mushfiqur Rahim played a marathon knock of 163 in nearly nine hours

Asitha Fernando bowled his heart out to capture 3 wickets

Litton Das contributed 90 to Bangladesh’s total

• Mushfiqur’s marathon knock places Bangladesh in sound position

Sri Lanka came back strongly after a 2½ hour break for rain in the afternoon session to capture five Bangladesh wickets for 26 runs and end the second day of the first cricket Test at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday in a much happier frame of mind than they would have at the start of play.

Bangladesh on 423-4 when rain curtailed play and brought about an early tea look headed for a big first innings total with Mushfiqur Rahim playing the leading role and Litton Das at the wicket. But the break for rain was the tonic Sri Lanka needed to regroup and come back hard at the Bangladeshis.

Up to that stage of the innings Sri Lanka had looked second best with just four wickets from 130.2 overs of toil, the half-chances that came their way weren’t taken and the mood was pretty downcast in the Lankan camp. There were chances created by Sri Lanka but they couldn’t capitalise on them. There was a big mix-up between Mushfiqur and Litton but the throw came to the wrong end and Litton survived on 8. The same duo risked a quick single and Mushfiqur (126) escaped on that occasion. In the very next over, Mushfiqur collected his first boundary of the day and that was a half-chance as well but Prabath Jayasuriya was a touch late to react on his follow through. Litton, on 14, got another reprieve with Pathum Nissanka dropping him at midwicket off Tharindu Rathnayake’s bowling. Litton immediately responded with a hat-trick of boundaries to settle the nerves.

Asitha Fernando who had accounted for the only wicket to fall in the morning session that of the Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain, ended Mushfiqur’s marathon innings at the crease by trapping him lbw for a rock-solid knock of 163, his seventh 150-plus score in Tests. The former Bangladesh wicket-keeper occupied the crease for 529 minutes and faced 350 balls hitting 9 fours. He was the cornerstone of the Bangladeshi batting showing great resolve and building up two big partnerships of 264 with Najmul (148 off 279 balls, 15 fours, 1 six) and 149 with Litton Das (90 off 123 balls, 11 fours, 1 six). Mushfiqur came within 16 runs of becoming the highest run-getter among overseas players at Galle which stands to the credit of Pakistan’s Younis Khan with 497 (avg. 62.12) from five Tests. Mushfiqur currently stands third with 482 runs (avg. 120.50) from three Tests behind Australia’s Usman Khawaja – 490 (avg. 54.44) from six Tests behind Younis.

The dismissal of Mushfiqur who had held the innings together opened the floodgates for Sri Lanka who was quickly into the tail after the fall of Litton who registered his 18th Test fifty before falling to Tharindu Rathnayake’s negative line bowling, trying to reverse sweep and edging a catch to the wicket-keeper.

Milan Rathnayake who had bowled economically without much success returned to bowl a probing spell to pick up three wickets late in the day, but at 484-9 Bangladesh will be the happier side although the pitch is still conducive to batting.

For Sri Lanka their most successful bowler at Galle, Prabath Jayasuriya has gone wicketless bowling 48 overs for 154 runs and is in danger of ending empty-handed for the first time in his career. He has taken 80 of his 116 Test wickets at Galle at an average of 25.81 and has never gone wicketless in the 20 innings he has bowled so far.

With overs lost due to rain play is due to commence at 9:45 a.m. today with a minimum of 98 overs to be bowled.​