Fifth-day challenge for Tigers
Like their previous three away Tests, the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle awaits a final day denouement today with Bangladesh having 10 wickets to try and salvage a draw and needing 390 runs to pull off an unlikely victory.
11 overs were left in the day when play was called off due to bad light yesterday with Bangladesh's opening pair of Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar unconquered on 67 after Sri Lanka had set them a target of 457 by declaring four overs after tea.
A sobering reminder of the tall nature of the task in front of Bangladesh is that the highest successful chase at Galle is 99 for three by Sri Lanka against Pakistan in 2014. The highest fourth innings total was 300 by Pakistan, chasing 510 in 2012. Another sobering reminder is that in all of those three away Tests, Bangladesh lost the match on the fifth day.
The wicket however has held together well, perhaps because of the cloud cover over the last two days and the fact that it has spent some time under the covers because of rainfall on the third evening. The two openers seemed relatively untroubled, other than Tamim surviving a difficult chance in the third over of the innings when an edge off Suranga Lakmal was grassed by Dimuth Karunaratne diving low to his left.
Soumya was in attacking mood, scoring 53 runs off 47 balls -- his second 50 of the match and third in Tests -- with six fours and a six over midwicket off Lankan skipper Rangana Herath in the 14th over.
Earlier, when Sri Lanka started their innings with a lead of 182, Bangladesh's bowling started with the virtual wave of a white flag as Subashis Roy ran in to bowl the first ball of the innings with a deep point in place. Mehedi Hasan Miraz opened at the other end, and in the sixth over Karunaratne hit uppishly to Shakib Al Hasan at short cover, but the all-rounder could not hold on to the catch despite getting both hands to the ball above his head.
The Sri Lanka openers were thereafter completely untroubled. The home batsmen seemed to be setting their stall to attack in the afternoon and played safe cricket in the morning, choosing to milk the unthreatening Bangladesh bowling for singles through the ample gaps available.
Against the run of play, a half-cock pull from Karunaratne in the 23rd over resulted in a catch to Mahmudullah Riyad at deep square leg for a 73-ball 32 after an opening partnership of 69. Unruffled, Tharanga and Kusal Mendis saw out the rest of the session to reach lunch at 87 for one in 33 overs.
Bangladesh's demeanour did not change much after the break, but Sri Lanka's did. There was a review off the second ball bowled by Shakib as the umpire had turned down an appeal for caught behind after Mendis attempted to whip a leg-side ball fine. Replays however showed that unlike Shakib's dismissal the previous day, the ball had missed the gloves on its way through to keeper Liton Das.
Once Tharanga reached his 50 off 109 balls, he hit successive boundaries off Mustafizur Rahman to cover and to the right of Tamim at deep backward point, closing out the 37th over in style.
In the 40th over, the lead swelled past 300 and Mendis celebrated the landmark with a slog-swept six over deep midwicket off Shakib. The near double-centurion of the first innings could not plunder for too much longer however, holing out to Taskin at deep square leg off a flighted Shakib delivery for 19 in the 42nd over.
Chandimal, who struggled for a 54-ball five in the first innings, then joined Tharanga. Without a fifty in his last seven innings he got the break that he needed when, on 11, Soumya dropped a low catch to his right at slip in the 49th over, with Miraz again being the unlucky bowler.
Tharanga celebrated his third Test century with a single to midwicket off Shakib. His second 50 took just 54 balls and he hit a six over long on to signal his intentions off the very next ball he faced. Things were looking especially ominous for Bangladesh when he toyed with Miraz's first two balls in the next over, the 55th of the innings, hitting one inside-out over extra-cover for a four and reverse-sweeping the next through point. His next attempt at a boundary, a heave across the line, resulted in him being bowled for a potentially match-winning 171-ball 115 studded with 11 fours and two sixes.
Shakib then dismissed Asela Gunaratne in the next over from around the wicket with a ball that pitched on off stump and straightened to clip the right-hander's off stump. Bangladesh then lost their second review when a leg-before appeal by Shakib against Niroshan Dickwella, with the ball drifting in and beating the left-hander's sweep, was turned down. Replays showed that the ball would have just clipped the top of leg, so the umpire's decision stood. In the 60th over, Chandimal brought up the 400 lead with a swept four to fine leg off Shakib.
Miraz then had his second wicket when Liton took the catch of the match in the next over. Dickwella went for a reverse paddle and, anticipating the deflection, Liton reacted brilliantly by sticking the left hand out and plucking it out of thin air.
That brilliance was short-lived as two balls later new batsman Dilruwan Perera's heave to midwicket was not only dropped by Riyad running to his left on the boundary, but parried over for six -- the third drop off Miraz's bowling.
To the befuddlement of many, Sri Lanka then continued batting till tea, which they reached on 247 for five and a lead of 429 after having scored 11 runs in the session off 31 overs. A flurry of boundaries followed from Perera and Chandimal, who notched his first 50 in eight innings in the 69th over. Two balls later, Mustafizur had Perera caught behind with an off-cutter, which brought on the declaration with the score on 274 for six in 69 overs.