‘Having 3 spinners will help’
Despite Kusal Mendis coming painfully close to a maiden Test double hundred on the morning of the second day, it was wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella’s quickfire 75 after he resumed the day on 14 that drove the home side to a potentially winning total of 494 yesterday.
On top of that, in the last session, through a suicidal attempt at a run from Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal, it was Dickwella who gleefully whipped off the bails that gave Sri Lanka the edge after Bangladesh were threatening a run-fest.
“It brushed his pad and I caught it. He must have thought the ball went past me and he went out of the crease, I removed the bails. We were appealing both for the catch and the leg-before,” said Dickwella, revealing the typical wicketkeeper’s penchant for opportunism.
Before that happy ending he was one of two Sri Lankans who let Bangladesh’s openers off the hook. He dropped Tamim on 28 in the eighth over off Dilruwan Perera, who had earlier dropped Soumya Sarkar at gully on four off Suranga Lakmal in the third over.
“Those came at a crucial time. Both the batsmen got half-centuries,” he said. “That [Tamim’s chance] was a bad miss. That’s part of the game. We get chances and score runs, and sometimes we miss catches and they score runs.”
He had earlier signalled Sri Lanka’s intentions by hitting the fourth ball of the day, from Subashis Roy, for an expertly flicked six over midwicket, before making his 75 off 76 deliveries, studded with six fours and that six.
“That’s my normal game, and I don’t want to change the way I play,” he said when asked about his attacking style. “It was a flat track as well. I didn’t think too much, and my normal game helped me to score runs.”
On the state of the game, the young wicketkeeper thought that Sri Lanka’s spinners would have to take the main responsibility of bundling out Bangladesh for a manageable total.
“We definitely have to take wickets and keep them to a low score. Our spinners are bowling really well and we’ve got three spinners. That should help us tomorrow.
“It’s a really slow, flat track. It was a good batting track yesterday, and it’s becoming really slow at the moment. Today it was getting slow and the turn is slow. I think it will start to properly turn in the evening.”
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