Bangladesh ended Day Two with 133 for 2 on the board, trailing Sri Lanka by another 361 runs at Galle, in the first Test, on Wednesday. Continuing from over 320 runs, Sri Lanka batted well on Day Two. While hosts were able to put up a massive total of 494 runs — courtesy Kusal Mendis — Bangladesh too had a good start. They did not lose a wicket in the second session and added more than 100 for the opening stand. However, they lost two major wickets towards the end of the day and Day Three will be crucial for the game. Here are the key moments and highlights from the day’s play. Full Cricket Scorecard: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test at Galle
The false celebration: The Day Two started with a funny incident. As Subhashis Roy bowled his third over of the day, Kusal Mendis top-edged a bouncer to Mustafizur Rahman at fine leg. Mustafizur took the catch but stepped on the rope converting it into a six. Roy, unaware of the fact, was on top of his celebration while he was notified by the umpire, as well as Niroshan Dickwella that it was a six!
Kusal Mendis’ 194: Kusal Mendis’ knock has to be the show-stealer of the Sri Lanka innings. He stood stand among all batsmen on Day One and remained unbeaten at 166. Resuming on Day Two, he scored 194 runs but remained unlucky not to get his double-ton. In fact, it looked like he threw away his wicket when Mendis went for a six, but was caught near the ropes six runs short of what would have been his maiden double hundred.
Niroshan Dickwella’s 75: Dickwella’s knock was like the ones usually played in limited-overs format. He hit fearlessly from the very start and took only 76 deliveries to score the runs with a strike rate over 98. However, he played a shot too many and was dismissed short of a deserving Test hundred.
Dilruwan Perera’s handy 51: After Mendis and Dickwella were done with their parts, Dilruwan added a crucial 51 that pushed team’s score beyond 450 and took it close to 500.
The dropped chances: Soumya Sarkar, who remained unbeaten at 66 at the end of Day Two, was dropped at the beginning of his innings at 4. It was a Suranga Lakmal delivery which he edged to Dilruwan Perera at gully. Dilruwan, usually a good fielder, failed to hold on to it and gave Sarkar a new life. Tamim Iqbal, too, was dropped at 28 by wicketkeeper Dickwella and later went on to score 57.
The record opening stand: Tamim and Sarkar put up a record opening stand for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka as they put up 118 runs. The previous best was by Tamim and Jahurul Islam for 91 runs.
Tamim Iqbal’s bizarre dismissal: Tamim did something nearly unexplainable on Day Two. As Lakshan Sandakan and the rest of Sri Lankan cricketers appealed for a caught behind, Tamim ran without even looking at where the ball was. Dickwella had already collected the ball and executed a clean run out, sending Tamim back for 57.(CC)