Bangladesh 188 and 43 for five (Vishwa 3-13) want one other 464 runs to beat Sri Lanka 280 and 418 (Kamindu 164, de Silva 108, Miraz 4-74)
Bangladesh nosedived within the dying moments of day three in Sylhet, shedding 5 wickets for 43 runs in 13 overs earlier than stumps. The stoop although got here when Bangladesh had been anyway in a dire scenario. Earlier within the day, Kamindu Mendis had struck 164 and Dhananjaya de Silva had additionally accomplished his second hundred of the match, leaving the hosts with an inconceivable 511 goal to chase.
Nonetheless, their dramatic collapse has left Sri Lanka needing simply 5 wickets in two scheduled days of play. There’s some rain forecast for Monday afternoon, however Sylhet’s climate in any other case appears to be like conducive for cricket. Sri Lanka will really feel they’re getting ready to a rollicking victory.
All up, Vishwa’s take for the day was 3 for 13 from his seven overs. Rajitha and Kumara took a wicket apiece.
However there was indiscipline from Bangladesh too. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto was out fifth ball, throwing his bat at a full supply that had pitched greater than half-a-metre vast of off stump. Then, the final wicket to fall was that of Litton Das, who having saved wicket all day, ran down the monitor first ball he confronted, and performed an enormous hoick throughout the road to Kumara. Predictably, he top-edged it, and was caught metres from the pitch by the incoming cowl fielder.
Earlier than Bangladesh’s batting imploded, nonetheless, Sri Lanka’s decrease center order had thrived but once more. De Silva and Kamindu had rescued Sri Lanka from 57 for five within the first innings with a 202-run stand. Although the group was better-placed on this event – 222 runs forward with 4 wickets in hand – their 173-run partnership on Sunday however remodeled the sport’s outlook, turning Sri Lanka’s good place into an completely dominant one.
Though Kamindu was considerably circumspect to start with, scoring simply 5 off his first 20 balls, each batters progressed easily, after coming collectively within the third over of the day (Khaled Ahmed had eliminated nightwatcher Vishwa with a pointy bouncer). With the ball virtually 40 overs previous, Bangladesh’s quicks weren’t getting a lot lateral motion. And the spinners weren’t getting buy off the wicket.
Though the pitch had loads of tempo and bounce nonetheless, it had eased to some extent, and each de Silva and Kamindu had been fast to identify the size, and performed the pull with specific ease. Their scoring areas had been largely sq. of the wicket with solely the occasional boundary coming down the bottom.
They attacked in bursts too, to actually impose themselves on the opposition, In an eight-over interval beginning with the forty seventh of the innings, the pair clattered 56 runs. By means of that passage, Kamindu collected consecutive boundaries off Nahid Rana, earlier than de Silva flat-batted the identical bowler previous mid on two balls later. Then, subsequent over, de Silva clobbered Mehidy Hasan’s offspin for 2 slog-swept sixes. Bangladesh’s assault had been rendered flat, they usually by no means actually recovered.
extra to observe…
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior author at ESPNcricinfo. @afidelf
