Lunch Bangladesh 312 and 157 for 5 (Mushfiqur 34*, Liton 32*, Herath 2-50, Perera 2-49) need 300 to win against Sri Lanka 494 and 274 for 6 declared (Tharanga 115, Chandimal 50*, Mehedi 2-77)
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers set the hosts on track for victory, in the first hour of the fifth day, before Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das mounted a plucky resistance for the second half of the session. With the pitch now taking substantial turn, Sri Lanka remain well placed to push for victory, but the sixth-wicket partnership – which has now seen out 19 overs and yielded 53 runs – has lent hope that Bangladesh might hold on until the rains come. No heavy clouds had moved over the ground by lunch, but there are reports of lashing storms in the vicinity, and it may only be a matter of time. On the off-chance that a full day’s play is possible, Bangladesh have a further 67 overs to bat out.
Their woes had begun immediately on day five. Soumya Sarkar, who had sped to fifty the previous afternoon, almost sent a catch to short leg off Asela Gunaratne first ball, but was out next ball in any case, Gunaratne’s offbreak jiving away from his defence to shave the top of off stump.
The top order fell away quickly thereafter. Dilruwan Perera came to the crease to bowl to Mominul Haque, and trapped the batsman with much the same delivery that had got him out in the first innings. Flighted in to pitch on around middle stump, Perera turned the ball, beat the shot, and rapped a leaden-footed Mominul dead in front of middle stump. So scrambled was the batsman’s mind, that he even ventured a heedless review of that lbw decision though he never really thought he had a chance of surviving it – walking most of the way to the boundary before the third-umpire could even run the simulations.
Tamim Iqbal soon sent a catch to lip off Perera, and then Rangana Herath, Sri Lanka’s most reliable purveyor of fourth-innings wickets, made a double-strike that drew him level with Daniel Vettori’s career wicket tally of 362. Shakib Al Hasan was caught at leg slip off one that turned a little more than the batsman expected, then two balls later, Mahmudullah was lbw to a delivery that spun past his defence as well. At that stage, Bangladesh had lost five wickets in 12.4 overs – this being the latest installment in their recent series of fifth-day collapses.
Once again it fell to Mushfiqur to fit his team’s innings with a backbone, and on this occasion, Liton proved a capable sidekick. They missed the balls that spun too much, but made sure to make contact with those that threatened the stumps. Herath dangled carrot after carrot before them, leaving one side of the field open in order to tempt a shot against the turn. They refrained. This pitch was too far gone now for even good players of spin to safely play such strokes.
The pair did not completely forget about scoring runs, but instead of attempting boundaries, they sought simply to knock balls into gaps. Herath kept a constant ring around the batsmen, so there were vast open spaces to choose from.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo’s Sri Lanka correspondent. @andrewffernando
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