Roshen Silva made his 4th 50+ score in Tests on day 2 of the 2nd Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Dhaka to put the visitors 312 runs ahead at stumps. Sri Lanka had the hosts bowled out for 110 earlier in the day.
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Silva came into bat with Sri Lanka in a bit of trouble on 92/4 but showed his experience in handling the slow and low pitch to go on to score 58* at the end of the day’s play. Apart from Kusal Mendis in the 1st innings, Silva is the only man to have gone past 50 in the game thus far. He had shown an appetite for runs on the leg side thus far in his career but on this occasion, his most productive area turned out to be square on the off side as he played the ball late through the field.
Sri Lanka edge ahead on 14-wicket day
Dilruwan Perera and Suranga Lakmal combined to reduce..
Apart from Kusal Mendis, all the other Sri Lankan batsmen got starts but could not convert them into big scores as Bangladesh managed to chip away at the visitors’ batting line-up, picking up wickets at regular intervals. Dhananjaya De Silva continued his impressive run with the bat, since his comeback to the Test team in India late last year, making an attacking 28 off 25 deliveries. Dimuth Karunaratne too stuck around longer than he had done in the past two innings, surviving at the crease for 105 deliveries to make 32.
Captain Dinesh Chandimal too chipped in with 30 as the Bangladeshi spinners struggled to bowl a consistently good length. Mustafizur Rahman and Mehidy Hasan were the pick of the bowlers for the hosts, as the ball began to talk late in the day. Mustafizur picked up 2 in 2 to leave Sri Lanka in a tricky position on 178/8 but a 22 run partnership between Silva and Suranga Lakmal too Sri Lanka to stumps and put the lead beyond 300.
Earlier in the day, Bangladesh started day 2 relatively well, losing just the 1 wicket in the first hour of play as Lakmal removed the overnight batsman Liton Das. Mehidy Hasan and Mahmudullah added 34 for the 6th wicket but with the dismissal of the latter came a catastrophic collapse from the hosts.
Debutant Akila Dananjaya picked up Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman and Abdur Razzak in 2 overs as Bangladesh went from 107/5 to 110 all-out, losing their last 5 wickets for 3 runs. In fact, it was only night-watchman Mehidy Hasan who put up any semblance of a fight, making an unbeaten 38.
Although Dananjaya shone with the 3 quick wickets, it was Lakmal who once again provided the breakthrough early in the day and finished with figure of 3/25.
With Sri Lanka 300 runs ahead and the pitch aiding the bowlers, there is a very real possibility that the game will end on day 3, tomorrow.
