On the second day of the second Test in Chhattogram, Sri Lanka further tormented the Bangladesh spinners with half-centuries from Kamindu Mendis (92*) and Dhanajaya de Silva (70). The visitors amassed 531 points in the first innings, with of six half-centurons, before Bangladesh finished on 55 for 1. It was also the joint-second highest half-century total for Sri Lanka in an innings, and the greatest innings total by a side without a centurion.
With the day’s score at 314 for 4, the overnight batsmen Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya added 61 more runs to their fifth wicket stand before the former left, having reached half a century for Sri Lanka with nine runs remaining in his innings. With the exception of a strange attack by Dhanajaya, the pair played mostly conservatively while seizing scoring opportunities. After the ball gripped and turned in Shakib Al Hasan’s hands, the outside edge of Chandimal’s bat was taken to the ‘keeper, just over an hour into the day’s play.
However, that did not stop Dhananjaya from continuing the onslaught while Kamindu remained fairly conservative until lunchtime. Dhananjaya’s obsession with flicking the ball to Khaled Ahmed proved to be his undoing when, in the opening over of the second session, he failed to deliver one and was caught leg before. In his subsequent over, Khaled had the opportunity to take out another wicket when Prabath Jayasuriya got an edge to first slip. But even the second and third slip fielders had a chance to grab the rebound as Najmul Hasan missed a simple opportunity there. However, those two also slipped up.
After making them pay, the pair dug in for more than 20 overs. Before Tea put him down on 23 after a few overs, Jayasuriya was given another reprieve by Litton Das. But that was not as costly as it seemed, because five runs later Shakib had him locked leg before.
Hasan Mahmud stopped Kamindu’s slogsweep at deep mid wicket in the last session, highlighting Bangladesh’s ongoing problems on the field. He continued to be unbeaten after scoring 32 more runs while batting on 60 at that point. In that over, Vishwa Fernando made things even worse for Bangladesh by hitting two boundaries, one on either side of the wicket, off Taijul Islam. Two overs later, he tried to run a quick single, but Shanto’s direct under-arm throw proved to be his undoing.
Kamindu chose the offensive path, needing only the final two batters to assist him. After lofting Mehidy Hasan and Shakib over the fence for boundaries, he proceeded to slog sweep Taijul for two sixes in an over that ultimately resulted in the No. 11 hitter being run out, ending Sri Lanka’s innings.
Bangladesh, in reply, got off to a solid start in their innings thanks to a 42-run partnership between Mahmudul and Zakir Hasan for the first wicket. They quickly scored some boundaries and twos by taking advantage of the Sri Lankan bowlers’ miscue in line. Mahmudul was hit on his pads by an inbound delivery from Lahiru Kumara with less than three overs to go before stumps. Zakir and Taijul persevered during the last moments of the match, assisting Bangladesh in reaching the end without suffering any additional losses.
Brief Scores: Bangladesh 55/1 is trailed by 476 runs by Sri Lanka 531 (Kamindu Mendis 92*, Dimuth Karunaratne 86, Dhananjaya de Silva 70; Shakib Al Hasan 3-110, Hasan Mahmud 2-92).
