De Silva, Kamindu tons give Sri Lanka early advantage

On a day unusually dominated by seamers in Sylhet, centuries from skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (102) and Kamindu Mendis (102) enabled the visitors to take the honours on the opening day that saw 13 wickets fall.

Put into bat on a grassy surface under overcast conditions, Sri Lanka were tottering at 57/5 in the first session with Khaled Mahmud (3-72) slicing through the top order. With the ball jagging around on a tricky pitch, Sri Lanka were in a soup.

However, de Silva and Kamindu got together to put on a counter-attacking partnership of 202 that came off just 241 deliveries. Both batters were proactive in their approach and their intent saw Sri Lanka have a flawless post-lunch session where they lost no wickets while racking up 125 runs at a scoring rate of well over 4 runs-per-over. After tea, both batters got to their respective tons but perished in successive overs to debutant Nahid Rana (3-87). Bangladesh’s bowlers ensured that the tail didn’t wag but de Silva and Kamindu’s efforts had gotten Sri Lanka to a competitive first innings total of 280.

In reply, Bangladesh were left scarred in the ten overs that they had to negotiate till stumps. Vishwa Fernando got rid of opener Zakir Hasan and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto while Kasun Rajitha prised out the scalp of Mominul Haque to leave the hosts in a spot of bother. While batting did get easier against the older ball, seamers have constantly had something in their favour throughout. There has also been a hint of turn on offer. Considering the generic nature of pitches in Bangladesh, the Sylhet track should also get tougher to bat as the days go by.

Scores:

Sri Lanka

280 in 68 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 102, Kamindu Mendis 102; Khaled Ahmed 3-72, Nahid Rana 3-87) lead  Bangladesh 32/3 in 10 overs (Vishwa Fernando 2-09, Kasun Rajitha 1-20) by 248 runs

(Cricbuzz)