Spinners Dhananjaya de Silva and Prabath Jayasuriya capped off another dominant day for Sri Lanka on Friday, each taking two wickets to leave them on the verge of a resounding innings win against Bangladesh.
By the end of Day 3 at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, the visitors had slumped to 115/6 in their second innings, still 96 runs short of making Sri Lanka bat again.
Bangladesh started their second innings with a daunting deficit of 211 after Kusal Mendis’ assertive 84 had propelled Sri Lanka’s first innings total to 458 all out earlier in the day.
All seven batters in Bangladesh’s second innings reached double figures, but only Mushfiqur Rahim went past 20, scoring 26 before being beaten by Jayasuriya.
With just four wickets remaining, it will be a tough challenge for the Bangladesh lower order to fend off the Sri Lanka spinners, who have been extracting substantial turn, from finishing the Test and the two-match series.
Leading from the front, captain de Silva delivered twin blows with his off-spin in the evening session on Friday. He had Mominul Haque caught at first slip before trapping counterpart Najmul Hossain Shanto LBW.
Left-arm spinner Jayasuriya, under pressure to retain his spot after a lean period, responded with a probing spell as well. He struck with the new ball, removing Shadman Islam, caught behind and then bowled Mushfiqur.
The initial part of the day belonged to Mendis, who smacked a rapid 84 off 87 deliveries, with eight boundaries and two sixes, just when it seemed the Sri Lanka first innings was faltering.
Replying to Bangladesh’s first innings of 247, Sri Lanka resumed from a strong overnight position of 290/2 but lost four wickets in the morning session, three of them to the second new ball.
First to go was overnight hundred-maker Pathum Nissanka, who added 12 before chipping left-arm spinner Taijul Islam to short cover.
