SL v BAN, 1st Test, Day 4 Review: Tharanga century puts Sri Lanka in the driver's seat

Hosts Sri Lanka dominated Bangladesh for the majority of the 4th day and put themselves in a position of strength at the end of the day’s play in Galle. After bowling out Bangladesh for 312 yesterday, Sri Lanka played some brilliant cricket and on the back of a brilliant century by Upul Tharanga the hosts posted 274/6 in 69 overs before skipper Rangana Herath decided to declare the innings. Chasing an improbable victory target of 457, Bangladesh got off to a solid start and reached 67/0 before rain played spoilsport and finished the day early.

Openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Upul Tharanga got off to a brilliant start scoring runs at will and keeping the Bangladesh bowlers at bay. Tharanga struck a monstrous six to get things going as the duo played sensibly to keep the scoreboard ticking. Though boundaries came few and far between, the scoreboard kept moving. The duo brought up the 5 runs partnership in the 20th over when Karunaratne smashed Shakib Al Hasan for a scorching boundary through the point region.

But in the 22nd over, with the score reading 69/0, Karunaratne was dismissed by Taksin Ahmed. It was delivered way outside the off stump and the southpaw went after the delivery. He failed to connect and gave a simple catch to Mahmudullah stationed at the square leg region. Kusal Mendis joined Tharanga in the middle. With an overall lead of over 250 runs, the hosts were well and truly in the box seat.

After scoring 19, Mendis fell to Shakib Al Hasan but Tharanga was still going great guns. Dinesh Chandimal who was the next man in went on to notch up his first half century in 8 innings. The innings will surely give him satisfaction after horrendous performances in the recent past. Tharanga, on the other hand, played some gorgeous shots and went on to register his first test century in home soil. The southpaw reached the elusive three-figure mark in 54th over by smashing Shakib for a huge six over the midwicket region.

He eventually fell in the 55th over after smashing a couple of boundaries. His innings of 115 came off 171 balls and were constructed with 11 fours and two sixes. Two more wickets fell in quick succession as Dilruwan Perera joined Dinesh Chandimal in the middle. The off-spinning all-rounder struck some lusty blows from the word go which helped the hosts stretch their overall lead.

Eventually, after the dismissal of Perera, Herath declared the innings, thus setting Bangladesh a rather unlikely victory target of 457. In pursuit of a big total, Bangladesh openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar came out in the middle. Both started from where they left in the 1st innings. Both the southpaws played some attractive shots with hard-hitter Soumya Sarkar making the bulk of the scoring.

Sarkar was striking the ball brilliantly and raced his way through to a half century in just 44 deliveries. He smashed the Lankan bowlers all around Galle and remained unbeaten on 53 of 47 deliveries when rain stopped play. His innings included 6 fours and a solitary six while Tamim remained unbeaten on 13.

Brief Scores

Sri Lanka 1st innings 494 all-out (Kusal Mendis 194, Mehedi Hasan 4/113)

Bangladesh 1st innings 312 all-out (Mushfiqur Rahim 85, Dilruwan Perera 3/53)

Sri Lanka 2nd innings 274/6 dec in 69 overs (Upul Tharanga 115, Mehedi Hasan 2/77)

Bangladesh 2nd innings 67/0 in 15 overs (Soumya Sarka 52*, Tamim Iqbal 13*)

Bangladesh need 390 more runs to win