Lankans run past 400

Sri Lanka went past 400 runs in their first innings on the third day of the first cricket Test against Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday. The visitors began steady in the morning, the first session of the third day. Bangladesh’s ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was managing to turn a few deliveries and pulled off some splendid deliveries to trouble Mathews and Jayawardene in the first half-an-hour. After the first hour, the visitors crossed the 400 mark and secured a 190-run lead with five wickets in hand and were looking settled at the crease. They were not letting Tigers much of an opportunity to break through. Earlier in their first innings, Bangladesh were bowled out for a paltry 232 on Tuesday. The Lions strengthened their grip on the Test through steady accumulation, aided by a series of let-offs that allowed Kaushal Silva score his maiden Test century. The hosts needed to grasp all opportunities given their first-innings score of 232 that appeared inadequate after the opening day, but their performance in the field failed to complement the efforts of their seamers, particularly Al-Amin Hossain, who toiled with little luck. The Lankans stretched their lead to 143 and focused on grinding out the opposition to a position which would give them the luxury of batting just once. Silva displayed one of his biggest strengths - patience, and his ability to occupy the crease would have been deflating enough for Bangladesh, if the three let-offs weren’t bad enough. Silva’s stint could have ended on 39 - he went on to add exactly 100 more, by which time he had already shared two century stands, with Dimuth Karunaratne and Kumar Sangakkara. Bangladesh picked up only one wicket over the first two sessions, that of Karunaratne, but they ought to have seen the back of the other opener as well. To Bangladesh’s credit though, they created opportunities in an overcast Tuesday morning session that assisted their seamers, according to cricinfo.