Shakib brought back Kushal Mendis, who had become terrifying – 2024-03-31 05:38:02

Although he managed to pick up 2 wickets in the second session, the Lankan batsman Kushal Mendis was slowly moving towards the century in the third session. Already completed half century. 7 runs away from the century then. At such a time, he played a catch while punching an out-swing ball from Shakib Al Hasan.

Shakib’s third ball of the 72nd over was a light out-swinger. Mendis wanted to push forward. But the ball hits the edge of the bat between first and second slip. Mehdi Hasan Miraj jumped to the right side and palmed the ball with both hands.

Kushal Mendis was dismissed with 93 runs off 150 balls. Sri Lanka was then 263 runs. He made a partnership of 53 runs with Angelo Mathews.

At the time of writing this report, Sri Lanka are 288 for the loss of 3 wickets in 78.3 overs. Mathews is batting with 23 runs. Dinesh Chandimal is also at the wicket with 23 runs.

The first session of the first day in the Chittagong Test was spent in great disappointment. Bangladesh could not break the opening pair of the Lankans. However, the Tigers broke the pair at the beginning of the second session.

Towards the end of the session, Bangladesh got another wicket. In total, the Lankans got two wickets in the second session. Sri Lanka went into the tea break with 214 runs for 2 wickets.

Bad luck did not help the Tigers in their mission to save the series at the Zahoor Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first. The two Lankan openers batted quite comfortably from the start against the hosts’ relentless bowling.

The opening pair of Nishan Madushka and Dimuth Karunaratne ended the first session with 88 runs in 27 overs. Finally, in the 29th over of the innings, the duo was reduced to 96 runs.

Half-centurian Madushanka (57) was run out due to a misunderstanding with his partner while taking two runs off Mehedi Hasan Miraj. Liton Das broke the wicket with Hasan Mahmood’s throw from the cover boundary.

After that Kushal Mendis and Dimuth Karunaratne made another pair of 114 runs. The anointed Hasan Mahmud broke this pair at the end of the session.

Karunaratne, who was on the threshold of a century, was bowled by pulling the wicket while playing a drive from this right-arm pacer. He scored 86 runs off 129 balls with 8 fours and 1 six.

IHS/