Sri Lanka dominated Bangladesh as they won the first Test by 328 runs at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium. Barring the first couple of hours on Day 1 when they looked jittery, the visitors did not give the Tigers much breathing space. In only his second Test as skipper, Dhananjaya de Silva achieved the feat of becoming the first skipper from his country to hit hundreds in both innings of a Test match.
He got a perfect partner in Kamindu Mendis, who rescued his team with a 102-run innings in the first innings and followed it up by scoring 164 in the second. On the back of his knocks, Sri Lanka set Bangladesh a humongous target of 511 to chase down. At Stumps on Day 3, De Silva’s men nearly confirmed a victory after reducing the hosts to 47 for 5 in 13 overs.
Mominul Haque showed some resistance with a knock of 87 off 148 balls, but it was only to delay the inevitable. The left-handed batter put on a partnership of 66 runs for the seventh wicket with Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who scored 33 off 50. The pacers did most of the work in the second innings.
Kasun Rajitha was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka after he picked up 5 wickets. Vishwa Fernando and Lahiru Kumara accounted for 3 and 2 wickets respectively. Bangladesh were bowled out for 182 in 49.2 overs.
Bangladesh were lacklustre, to say the least. From once in with a chance to thump their opponents after getting them on the mat, Najmul Hossain Shanto’s men imploded terribly. Mahmudul Hasan Joy bagged his sixth duck in his 22nd Test innings.
Shanto threw his wicket away in the second innings while trying to play away from the body. Litton Das had a Test match equivalent to a nightmare. With his team chasing a huge target, he went for an agricultural shot and got out. Litton’s wicketkeeping also went under the scanner.
One of the positives for the Tigers was Nahid Rana, who made his Test debut. Rana leaked runs at an economy of over 6, but picked up 5 wickets and bowled with speeds nearly touching 150 kmph. Morally down Bangladesh need something special to recover from the slump.
