No issues, no centurions, as Sri Lanka accumulates 531

On the second day of the second Test at Chhattogram, Sri Lanka further tormented the Bangladesh spinners with half-centuries from Kamindu Mendis (92*) and Dhanajaya de Silva (70). The visitors amassed 531 points in the first innings, with of six half-centurons, before Bangladesh finished on 55 for 1. It was also the joint-second highest half-century total for Sri Lanka in an innings, and the greatest innings total by a team without a centurion.

With the day’s score at 314 for 4, the overnight batsmen Dinesh Chandimal and Dhanajaya de Silva added 61 more runs to their fifth wicket stand before the former left, having reached half a century for Sri Lanka with nine runs remaining in his innings. With the exception of a strange attack by Dhanajaya, the pair played mostly conservatively while seizing scoring opportunities. After the ball gripped and turned in Shakib Al Hasan’s hands,  ‘keeper took  the outer edge of Chandimal’s bat. Just over an hour into the day’s play.

However, that did not stop Dhanajaya de Silva from continuing the onslaught while Kamindu remained fairly conservative until lunchtime. Dhananjaya’s obsession with flicking the ball to Khaled Ahmed proved to be his undoing when, in the opening over of the second session, he failed to deliver one and was caught leg before. In his subsequent over, Khaled had the opportunity to take out another wicket when Prabath Jayasuriya got an edge to first slip. But even the second and third slip fielders had a chance to grab the rebound as Najmul Hasan missed a simple opportunity there. However, those two also slipped up.

After making them pay, the pair dug in for more than 20 overs. Before Tea knocked him down on 23 after a few overs, Jayasuriya was given another reprieve by Litton Das. But that was not as expensive as it seemed, since five runs later Shakib had him locked leg before.

Hasan Mahmud stopped Kamindu’s slogsweep at deep mid wicket in the last session, highlighting Bangladesh’s ongoing problems on the field. He continued to stay undefeated after scoring 32 more runs while batting on 60 at that point. In that over, Vishwa Fernando made things even worse for Bangladesh by hitting two boundaries, one on either side of the wicket, off Taijul Islam. However, an attempt to run a rapid two overs after that resulted in
Kamindu chose the offensive path, needing only the final two batters to assist him. He lofted Mehidy Hasan and Shakib down the ground for boundaries. He then proceeded to slog sweep Taijul for two sixes in an over. It saw the left-arm spinner finally take the No. 11 batter’s wicket and conclude Sri Lanka’s innings.

Bangladesh, in reply, got off to a solid start in their innings. Thanks to a 42-run partnership between Mahmudul and Zakir Hasan for the first wicket. They quickly scored some boundaries and twos by taking advantage of the Sri Lankan bowlers’ miscue in line. An inbound delivery from Lahiru KumaraMahmudul hit on his pads with less than three overs to go before stumps. Zakir and Taijul persevered during the last moments of the match. They assisted Bangladesh in reaching the end without suffering any further losses.