BSS
Sri Lanka overcame a spirited Taskin Ahmed to put them on top of Bangladesh on day two of the second and final Test at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy on Friday.
Taskin Ahmed produced a gem of fast bowling to claim 3-119, which left Sri Lanka at troublesome situation but the hosts recovered well to reach 469-6 before the bad light stopped the proceedings of the day.
NiroshanDickwella whose counterattack revived Sri Lanka, was batting on run-a-ball-64, hitting seven fours with Ramesh Mendis on 22.
With some crack looking visible in the pitch and spinners getting some turn and bounce, the total already appeared to be daunting.
As Sri Lanka looked to extend their dominance after resuming the day on 291-1, Taskin’s fiery bowling prevented them from going hard on Bangladesh.
After creating pressure on the Lankan overnight batsmen Lahiru Thirimanne and Oshada Fernando with some disciplined bowling, Taskin got the reward with the wicket of the former.
Thirimanne edged a Taskin delivery behind the wicket to be out on 140, after starting the day on 131.
Taskin then gave Sri Lanka another blow, taking the key scalp of Angelo Mathews for 5 while Taijul dismissed Dhananjaya de Silva for 2 as Sri Lanka ended the morning session with just 43 runs for three wickets.
Taskin kept testing the Lankan batsmen even after the lunch session and extended his tally, rattling the stump of PahtumNissanka who scored 30 and looked dangerous to take the game away from Bangladesh with free-flowing batting.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz then got an extra bounce from the pitch to baffle Oshada Fernando on 81, keeping Bangladesh on top in this session.
But NiroshanDickwella came up with aggressive batting to revive the hope of the side once again. He reached his 18th fifty off 48 balls, punching a delivery of Shoriful Islam through extra cover for two runs.
However, Taskin could have got the wicket of Ramesh Mendis too on 12, when he edged a delivery at first slip where Nazmul Hossain Shanto put down the chance. It was Shanto’ second miss in this match.
Ramesh Mendis played a second fiddle to Dickwella and together they added 87-run for an undefeated seventh wicket stand, which kept Sri Lanka firmly for 500 plus total on the board.
But a spell of shower firstly interrupted the proceeding when Sri Lankan was on 436-6. The game restarted after 30 minutes but the bad light finally put an end to the day as Dickwella kept hitting the bowlers all corners of the park.