Kumar Sangakkara and captain Mahela Jayawardene sent the tourists on a leather hunt for the whole day, making up for the loss of the first two days. And after winning the first two games quite confidently a clean sweep of the series now remains a mere formality. The rain, if it comes, can be Bangladesh's only saviour.

Left-arm pacer Syed Rasel was the sole successful bowler, picking up three wickets for 104 runs in 31 overs. No surprise then, that he was the man handpicked to represent his sorry squad in the press conference following the day's play. Sadly though, Rasel's off-pitch skills left a lot to be desired as he was a picture of bewilderment.

However, in what was a surprise move, Sangakkara -- who made his second consecutive double hundred in the series to remain not out on 222 was full of praise for the Bangladeshi bowlers.

"It was not easy to bowl here but (Mashrafe Bin) Mortaza bowled brilliantly although he went wicketless. He is a brilliant bowler and put the ball in the right areas today to give us lot of trouble. Syed Rasel's accuracy also impressed me and Shahadat is quiet a character," praised the left-hander although they amassed 500-4 at stumps to take a huge 369-run lead.

But he issued a warning for the Tigers by saying that spin wizard Muttiah Muralidaran will get an huge assistance from the fourth day pitch.

"We definitely want to see our new ball bowlers exploit the condition first but the fact is that Murali will get huge assistance on the fourth day and it will not be easy to bat against him here," he said adding that they have yet to think about the declaration.

The prolific run-scorer expressed his satisfaction over his first double century in his home ground.

"It's a great pleasure for me that I could manage a double century in front of my home crowd. I have grown up here playing a lot of matches in the process, so it's a special feeling for me. I believe that all of this success is a result of hard work," he said.

Although the day's double hundred was more fluent than his previous one he rated the P Sara effort highly.

"I think the P Sara one was slightly better because I was out of form then. Though I made consecutive double hundreds, I have to work on my batting when I go to Colombo. Our coach Trevor Penney worked hard to fine-tune the sweep and chip shots which worked quite well today," he added.

"I was a little bit cautious initially because I didn't want to make mistakes when we lost two quick wickets but Mahela was fantastic in his batting. I am a little bit disappointed because the way Mahela batted in the innings, he deserved a bigger score than what he got," he said about his partner with whom he shares a world record partnership of 624.