Cricket Highlights, 15 May: BAN vs SL (1st Test – Day 1)

BAN vs SL (1st Test – Day 1)

The Sri Lankan cricket team ended the first day of the Chattogram Test in a comfortable manner with the responsible batting of veteran batsman Angelo Mathews. The visitors have scored 258 runs for the loss of only 4 wickets in the allotted 90 overs of the day. Kusal Mendis has scored a half-century and Mathews is unbeaten after scoring a century.

Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne decided to bat first after winning the toss at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. Bangladesh took two wickets each in the first and last session of the day. Sri Lanka scored 73 for 2 in the first session, 85 for no loss in the second session, and 100 for 2 in the last session.

However, Bangladesh put some pressure on the visitors on the first session of the day. Nayeem Hasan, who has made his comeback to Tests after almost 14 months, sent off Karunaratne (9) to strike for the first time for the hosts in the eighth over of the innings. Later, Bangladesh got their second success by holding his hand again. This time, Oshada Fernando (36) got caught behind in the 22nd over by him.

Bangladesh also lost two reviews on Shoriful’s bowling in Nayeem’s double success session. In the over just after Oshada was out, Shoriful made a strong appeal against the new batsman Mathews. The umpire did not respond. However, as if Shoriful was completely sure about that appeal, he went for a review.

As seen in the replay, the impact of the ball was outside the off-stump. So Bangladesh lost the review. Earlier, the hosts lost the review in the fifth over with Shoriful’s ball. The impact of that ball against Oshada was outside the leg stump. So the hosts lost two reviews.

Kusal Mendis and Mathews chose to counter-attack from the start of the second session. Together they scored 55 runs in the first 11 overs of the session. Then Shakib Al Hasan came to bowl in the 36th over and stopped the pace of the Lankans’ run.

Another left-arm spinner Taijul Islam bowled brilliantly alongside Shakib. These two bowled 20 overs in a row and conceded only 20 runs. However, despite creating opportunities, the second session did not provide any success for the Tigers. Kusal-Mathews took 85 runs in 32 overs in this session.

However, after the start of the last session, Taijul got the wicket of Kusal in the first ball. Kusal (54) returned to the dressing room with a catch in Nayeem’s hand while pulling a short-length ball to the onside. After that Dhananjaya de Silva (6) could not survive on the wicket for long. He was caught out as a bat-pad by Shakib. Bangladesh confirmed the wicket by going for a review.

Bangladesh took two wickets in a short time and raised some good hopes. But towards the end of the day, Dinesh Chandimal and Mathews, two experienced Lankan batsmen played safely to shatter the hopes for the hosts. The duo added 75 runs in 24.4 overs.

After bowling three balls in the 81st over of the innings, Bangladesh took a new ball. Mathews picked up his 12th career century by flicking the ball towards the boundary just after taking the new ball. He scored his last century in January the previous year. After about 15 months, the experienced Sri Lankan all-rounder got a century again.

At the end of the day, Mathews is unbeaten on 114 off 213 balls with 14 fours and 1 six. Chandimal hit 2 sixes and made 34 runs off 77 balls. For Bangladesh, Nayeem took two wickets with the ball. Besides, Shakib and Taijul took 1 wicket each.

BAN vs SL Scoreboard

Sri Lanka (1st Innings) – 258/4 (90.0)

BAN vs SL Playing XIs