Sri Lanka looks set to complete a resounding victory against Bangladesh after ruling the roost for the majority of Day 4. After bowling out Bangladesh for a below-par 251 in their first innings, Sri Lanka needed some quick runs. However, they lost two quick wickets and started the 4th day’s play on 17/2 with a huge lead of 242 runs. They needed to get some quick runs and put Bangladesh on the backfoot and that was exactly what they did.
Sri Lanka lost the wicket of Angelo Matthews early on in the day and it was a good delivery from Taijul Islam to bring his downfall. With such a huge lead, Sri Lanka was well in control despite the loss of Matthews. A partnership of 73 runs from Dhananjaya de Silva and skipper Dimuth Karunratne set the tone for the rest of the day. They started scoring quickly without caring about the wickets.
Pathum Nissanka and Niroshan Dickwella breezed through in the mini knocks which allowed Sri Lanka to post 194 on the board with the loss of 9 wickets. Karunartne decided to declare the innings on 194, giving a highly impossible target of 437. While the skipper was the top scorer for the Lankans with 66, Taijul Islam bowled brilliantly and finished with a fifer. He returned with figures of 5/72 in 19.2 overs.
The visitors got off to a brisk start courtesy some fine strokeplay from opener Tamim Iqbal. He looked in sublime touch but had to depart after making 24 of 26 in a bid to play his strokes. The most disappointing part with Bangladesh’s batting display was everyone got off to start but none could turn it into a big one.
All the top five batsmen looked in great touch and played some delightful shots en route to their brief knocks. However, despite their exceptional starts, Bangladesh could only muster 177 on the board with the loss of 5 wickets. Saif Hassan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim went past 25 but none could convert it into a half-century. Ramesh Mendis and Praveen Jayawickrama bowled brilliantly in the middle overs and bagged three and two wickets respectively. With Bangladesh still needing 260 to win, Sri Lanka can sense victory and they should be hoping to wrap up things early on Day 5.
Brief Scores
Sri Lanka 1st innings- 493/7 dec (Lahiru Thirimanne 140, Dimuth Karunaratne 118, Taskin Ahmed 4/127)
Bangladesh 1st innings- 251 all-out (Tamim Iqbal 92, Praveen Jayawickrama 6/92)
Sri Lanka 2nd innings- 194/9 dec (Dimuth Karunaratne 66, Taijul Islam 5/72)
Bangladesh 2nd innings- 177/5 (Mushfiqur Rahim 40, Ramesh Mendis 3/86)
Bangladesh need 260 more runs to win