After Habibul Bashar's lady luck with the coin, the home team looked well set for a better batting display but it was once again proved that morning does not always show the day, at least for the Tigers.

From 52 without loss, Bangladesh slumped to 234 all out in the first innings, thanks to Bashar's lone battle during a fine 69 and a face-saving 32 by Mohammad Rafique.

Muralidaran, the 33-year-old great from Sri Lanka for another occasion ripped through the Bang-ladesh batting to take a giant leap toward the 600-wicket milestone. At the start of the series, Murali-daran was 16 scalps behind 600 and a 9-wicket haul in the Chittagong Test raised hopes to reaching it during the tour. After bagging 5-79 in the first innings in Bogra, he stands just two wickets away.

Although Bangladesh captain Bashar in the past blamed his batsmen for throwing wickets against the leading Sri Lankan bowler, he was not ready this time around to find his boys at any fault.

"Murali bowled extremely well and I must say he was too good today. We don't think our batsmen played bad shots this time," said Bashar, who reiterated his claim that they are not scared of facing the off-spinner.

Javed Omar and Nafees Iqbal not only looked confident but runs also came thick and fast during the opening partnership as Bangla-desh reached the fifty mark in 11.1 overs. But the Tigers lost their way once Muralidaran was brought into attack in the 13th over.

"I have told you that we are not scared of Murali and that doesn't meant he would not be successful against us. Even great players struggled against him," he explained when he was asked whether the openers got annoyed when Muralidaran took over.

"There is a more turn in the track and the surface is dry. So it would not be easy to bat here. I think we would have been in a much better position if we could at least score 300 runs," he added.

Bashar, however, sounded happy the way they finished the day taking two early wickets.

"I don't want to say the match is even after the first day's play because still they have a long batting coming. But definitely, two dismissals gave us some solace," he said adding that their main target is now to wrap up the rival first innings as early as possible.

Identifying a new problem, Bashar said that he was worried the way the batsmen failed to convert good starts into big knocks.

"It is a new problem. This is why we couldn't make big partnerships to put pressure on the opponents. Actually, we have yet to learn about how to bat session by session. If we want to do something in a Test match, we have to bat till lunch of second day.

"I think I was dismissed at a very bad time because it was just before the tea break. If I stayed ion the third session, the story could have been different," said Bashar, who offered a catch at silly mid-off to Upul Tharanga off Muralidaran.

Many believed that the think-tank unnecessarily broke the team combination by including Mush-fiqur Rahim, whose weakness against spin was exposed during his short stay.

But Bashar remained diplomatic on the issue, saying, "When we are decided on an eleven, we think it is the best one. We have to have confidence on every player. We can only analyse it after the match."