Bangladesh 312 for 9 (Mushfiqur 85, Mustafizur 4*) trail Sri Lanka 494 (Mendis 194, Mehedi 4-113) by 182 runs
A 108-run seventh-wicket stand between Mushfiqur Rahim and Mehedi Hasan put the brakes on Sri Lanka's advance in Galle, but the hosts closed out the session with three quick wickets, and regained a dominant position. When an apocalyptic cumulo-nimbus blew over the ground about five minutes from the scheduled tea break, Sri Lanka had the opposition's last-wicket pair in the middle, and were still 182 runs ahead.
Dilruwan Perera – who was kept out of the attack for the first 40 overs of the day – made the most telling blows, removing Mehedi and Taskin Ahmed in successive deliveries, before Rangana Herath removed the opposition caption.
As has often been the case for Bangladesh over the past two years, it was down to Mushfiqur to provide the inning's backbone. His long defiance of Sri Lanka had been largely passive in character in the first session – he had scored only 21 runs in 70 balls – but it became livelier after the break. Rangana Herath was launched into the sightscreen in the first over of the session, and Mushfiqur rarely let a scoring opportunity slip by him over the next few overs. He scored 47 runs in as many balls through that period, hitting eight boundaries and completing a 16th career fifty in the process.
Feeding off the senior man's productivity was Mehedi, fresh from his own good outing with the bat in Hyderabad. He ventured three boundaries as well to go with the two he had hit in his first few minutes at the crease in the morning session. The pair's association not only helped stem a collapse, but also, eliminated the option of the follow-on. Sri Lanka's bowlers – particularly Lakshan Sandakan and Lahiru Kumara – were guilty of allowing the partnership to gain a foothold, with wayward lines early in the session.
Perera's impact on the day was swift. In his third over of the day, he nailed Mehedi in front of the stumps with a quicker ball that turned. Taskin was given not out when rapped on the pad next ball, but Herath reviewed that decision, and the ball was found to be taking out enough of leg stump to overturn that call. With no. 10 batsman Subashis Roy visibly uncomfortable at the crease, Mushfiqur attempted to farm the strike, but was perhaps caught in two minds when he came down the crease to Herath in the waning overs of the session. He could have hit Herath's slider down the ground, but instead the ball dipped and slipped beneath his bat and into off stump. His contribution was 85 off 161 deliveries.
Earlier in the day Bangladesh's batsmen were guilty of squandering a position of parity, when four fell to a succession of loose shots. Soumya Sarkar swatted a Suranga Lakmal delivery directly to fine leg in the opening overs of the day, and Shakib Al Hasan was caught down the legside off the bowling of Lakshan Sandakan. Mahmudullah and Liton Das both fell playing footless strokes. Liton tried to poke Herath through the offside and managed only to send a catch to slip. Mahmudullah missed an angled Lahiru Kumara delivery sent down from wide of the crease, and had his offstump sent into a cartwheel.
Sri Lanka might have been in an even stronger position had Asela Gunaratne held the chance off Mehedi Hasan late in that first session, but with the pitch now taking some turn, they remain in control nevertheless.
ESPNcricinfo/LY
