Thanks to two veteran performances by Kumar Sangakkara 139 and 55 and Rangana Herath a match bag of 12 wickets, Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets on the 4th day of in the second and final test at the R Premadasa today.
In an amusing turn of events, Sri Lanka who requested some grass to be left on the pitch for their quicks to work on embarrassed themselves on two counts. Firstly the curator left more grass on the out-field than on the pitch with there being absolutely no-value for shots as the ball jogged and stopped ahead of the boundary lines. Secondly Sri Lanka packed in 4 seamers and Rangana Herath brought in the wickets.
On day 3, Bangladesh dished out a spirited passage ending the day at 158 for 4 with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque holding sway, with the possibility of mounting a reasonable total for Sri Lanka to chase.
However in the morning Herath commenced his deadly run dismissing Haque (37) for just an addition of 2 runs and continued on his merry way dealing blow after blow to the opposition. Nasir Hossain, Sohag Gazi and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim were his other victims. Gazi’s quick-fire 26 with skipper Rahim steady on the other side held the batting for a while. But Herath struck again with Gazi being caught by Lakmal. Rahim fell shortly after for a well made 40. The last wicket partnership of 15 runs became a nuisance to the opposition with Robiul Islam and Abdul Hasen piling on. Eranga powered into Islam’s wicket and Bangladesh finally finished at 265 with Hasen standing at the other end on 25.
This left Sri Lanka chasing 160 runs which in a 4th innings on a deteriorating pitch was dicey to say the least. Thebig guns took the onus on themselves and in a 94- run partnership T M Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara dropped anchor.
Dilshan took to the bowling with customary vengeance and Sangakkara held his end up to take them to safety. In the second essary for Sri Lanka, Dimuth Karunaratne went early once again without using the opportunity get some runs under him and Dilshan’s bashing ended on 57 with Robiul knocking off his stumps.
Sangakkara having got to a stately 55 was bowled by Gazi after the hard work was done. Angelo Mathews joined Tirimanne and brought Sri Lanka home to the skipper’s first test series win.
In summation, the inadequacy of the Sri Lankan bowling attack was clearly exposed; their inability to put in difficulty the Bangladesh batsmen at home, is not a good sign. Barring Rangana Herath on an assisting pitch and Kulasekara’s persistence there was nothing to talk about. Unless Sri Lanka start unearthing some fiery fast bowlers, the Angelo Mathew’s Sri Lanka team is going to struggle.
