Spinners Dhananjaya de Silva and Prabath Jayasurya rounded off another dominant day for Sri Lanka on Friday, taking two wickets each to leave Bangladesh on the brink of a crushing innings defeat in the second Test.
By close of play on the third day at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, Bangladesh had slumped to 115-6 in their second innings, still 96 runs away from making Sri Lanka bat again.
Bangladesh started their second innings with a daunting deficit of 211 after Kusal Mendis’s forthright 84 had taken the Sri Lanka first innings to 458 all out earlier in the day.
All seven batters so far in the Bangladesh second innings made it into double figures but only Mushfiqur Rahim made it beyond 20, making 26 before being beaten all ends up by Jayasuriya.
With only four wickets in hand, it will be a tough ask of the Bangladesh lower order to see off the Sri Lanka spinners, who have been gaining plenty of turn, from wrapping up the Test and the two-match series. The first Test ended in a draw.
Sri Lanka batter Kamindu Mendis said that the “wicket is spinning now from both ends and its not easy for the batters”.
“We will look to wrap this up quickly,” he said after the day’s play.
Earlier, leading from the front, skipper De Silva dealt twin blows with his off-spin in the evening session on Friday.
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He had Mominul Haque (15) caught at first slip before trapping his opposite number Najmul Hossain Shanto (19) leg before.
Left-arm spinner Jayasuriya, under pressure to keep his spot after a lean patch, also responded in style with a probing spell.
He struck with the new ball, removing Shadman Islam (12) caught behind, and then bowled Mushfiqur.
The early part of the day belonged to Kusal Mendis who hammered a rapid 84 off 87 balls, with eight fours and two sixes, when it looked as though the Sri Lanka first innings was faltering.
Replying to Bangladesh’s first innings of 247, Sri Lanka resumed on a strong overnight platform of 290-2 but lost four wickets in the morning session, three of them to the second new ball.
First to go was overnight century-maker Pathum Nissanka who added 12 before chipping left-arm spinner Taijul Islam to short cover. It was a soft end for the in-form opener whose 158 came after career-best 187 in the first Test in Galle.
But Kusal Mendis dug in his heels steering Sri Lanka past the 450-run mark before running himself out, ninth wicket down, going for an unlikely second run.
Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam wrapped up the innings four balls later to finish with 5-131, his 17th five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
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