Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Oshada Fernando each strike a fifty as they gave Bangladesh a fitting reply after the end of Day 2 in the second Test match in Mirpur on Tuesday.
Both men took the crease after Kasun Rajitha claimed his maiden five-wicket haul and dispatched the hosts for 365. They guided the tourists to 143/2 at stumps on the second day.
It was another absorbing day of cricket with the match still nicely poised. Tigers added 88 runs for the remaining 5 wickets on Tuesday with Musfiqur Rahim staying unbeaten on 175.
The visitors needed a good start in reply and Oshada Fernando made the most of his luck to compile a fine half-century. At the other end, captain Karunaratne has looked very solid and is unbeaten on 70, although he could have been dismissed had Bangladesh reviewed an LBW call. Kusal Mendis was dismissed at the fag end of the day, bringing some respite for the hosts. Sri Lanka are now 143/2, trailing by a further 222 runs.
The day undoubtedly belonged to the visitors, who once again dominated the morning session, getting rid of Litton Das (141) and Mosaddek Hossain (0) within the first hour. It was then up to Mushfiqur to bat with the tail and he survived up until lunch, but shortly into the second session Ebadot Hossain was run out and ended Tiger first innings.
Earlier, Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das guided the hosts to a moderate total of 365 despite losing ample of wickets in the first hour of day one.
Rajitha and Asitha Fernando went through the Bangladesh batting line and the hosts lost five wickets under 25 runs. From there, Mushfiqur and Liton propelled them to 365. Six Bangladeshi batters suffered a duck each.
Along the way, Bangladesh’s innings became the first instance of scoring this many runs after so many batters went back with a duck. And Mushfiqur became the most-run getter in an innings that saw more than half batters failing to score even a single run.
