Dilruwan Perera and Rangana Herath claimed 3 wickets a piece on the final day of the 2nd Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but could not prevent the visitors from claiming a 4 wicket; their 1st against Sri Lanka. With the win, Bangladesh leveled the 2 match series 1-1.
Mushfiqur Rahim threw his hands up in the air as Mehedi Hasan’s sweep shot saw the ball creep under a diving Dilruwan Perera at short fine leg, giving Bangladesh the 2 runs they needed to win. With a target of 191 set, a Bangladeshi victory was anything but certain at the end of the 1st session as Herath grabbed two off two balls to leave Bangladesh on 22/2. However, an assured and ultimately match winning partnership of 109 between Sabbir Rahman and Tamim Iqbal took the visitors to within striking distance of what proved to be a tricky target.
Although the new ball had spit and turned off the pitch, once the ball got older, there seemed to be little to no help for the bowlers.
Dilruwan gave Sri Lanka renewed hope however, when he had Tamim well caught by Dinesh Chandimal in the deep and then trapped Sabbir in front a few overs later. At this point, with Shakib Al-Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim at the crease, it was very much Bangladesh’s game to lose as they required 48 to win; the target was further reduced to 35 by tea.
Another Dilruwan wicket sent Shakib back to the hut soon after the break, once again setting the cat amongst the pigeons in the Bangladeshi camp. Twenty one year old Mosaddek Hossain smashed a return catch to Herath when the target was down to 20 but it was put down and he then went over the top for a boundary to add insult to injury. Herath ultimately had his man but it was too little too late by then as Bangladesh required just 2 runs for the win.
Photo Album: Sri Lanka v Bangladesh 2nd Test – Day 5
Earlier in the day Dilruwan Perera and Suranga Lakmal had put on 80 runs for the 9th wicket to give Sri Lanka a real chance of pulling off a win.
Lakmal looked good in the middle and pushed Sri Lanka’s lead past 150 with a lovely drive to the cover boundary off the bowling of Mustafizur Rahman. A few deliveries stopped on the pitch but the Sri Lankan batmen looked comfortable at the crease in general.
Dilruwan soon brought up his 5th Test 50 and 2nd in consecutive Tests but was run out a few deliveries later to end what could very well have been a match winning partnership. Sri Lanka made the cardinal mistake of trying to sneak a single off a misfield and paid the price when Subashish Roy, who had fumbled the ball, gathered and made the throw back to the bowler just in time to catch a diving Dilruwan short of his crease.
Lakmal, who had now surpassed his highest Test score, which he incidentally got in the 1st innings of the game, looked to take on Shakib Al-Hasan in the next over but only succeeded in slicing the ball to long off to end Sri Lanka’s innings.
Sri Lanka nearly had a dream start to their time in the field when Dilruwan drew the edge from Soumya Sarkar, but the ball flew between the keeper and Asela Gunaratne at slip.
Sri Lanka’s big breakthrough came in the 8th over when Sarkar went for the big heave and top edged the ball to Upul Tharanga at mid-off. The next ball saw Imrul Kayes edging the ball to slip to give Sri Lanka a real opening into the game.
