Spin wizard Murlitharan claimed his 58th five wicket haul as Sri Lankan bowlers destroyed Bangladesh’s batting line up on the opening day of first test in Colombo.
The master spinner had the figures of 5 for 15 as Bangladesh sent into bat first by the lankan’s were bundled out for a paltry total of 89 in 32.3 overs. This was their third lowest total.
Sri Lanka were 227-3 at the close of play with a healthy lead of 138.
Shahadat Hossain the bangladeshi seamer was impressive in his opening spell as he removed debutant Malinda Warnapura for zero and Kumar Sangakkara for six in his first two overs.
Sri lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene was caught when he was on 17 but he lucky escaped as it was a no ball. Jayawardene scored 93 before he retired hurt due to a strain in his right calf muscle, seven runs short of his 17th Test century.
Opener Michael Vandort was unbeaten on 87 and Tillakaratne Dilshan was the other batsman at the crease on 27 when the proceeding of day ended. Murlitharan took his wickets tally to 679 wickets just 30 short of Shane Warne’s world record of 708.
Dilhara Fernando took 3-33 and Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga picked up a wicket each as Bangladesh collapsed to 64-7 by lunch at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Bangladesh was in danger of falling short of their lowest ever total of 86 against Sri Lanka as they further slumped to 69-8 early in post lunch session.
Khaled Mashud (12 not out) and Mohammad Rafique (11) steadied the innings a bit and take the total to 85, before last man Abdur Razzak drove Muralitharan through the covers for a boundary to prevent a new low by his team.
For Bangladesh Shakib-Al Hasan top scoerd with 16 runs. All the batsmen struggled against both pace and spin. The top five batsmen including the new skipper Mohammad Ashraful,were back in pavilion with just 50 runs on the board.
It was a bad start to my captaincy, we had high hopes of batting well but it just did not work out. Hopefully we will do better in the second innings. We have to.
rued the 22-year-old Ashraful, who took over from Habibul Bashar as the captain of Bangladesh.
Murlitaharan introduced early in the innings in just the fifth over, struck in his first over itself and then kept taking wickets at regular intervals to completely demolish Bangladesh’s batting order.
Via: Espnstar
