Tigers on top despite Dimuth’s ton

colombo — Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan shared six wickets between them but Sri Lanka fought back through a fighting century from Dimuth Karunaratne in the second Test in Colombo on Saturday.

Karunaratne held one end for a long period to score 126 before a dogged unbeaten innings of Dilruwan Perera helped Sri Lanka reach 268-7 at stumps on the fourth day to stretch their lead over the visitors to 139 runs.

This lead looked a distant possibility once Mustafizur and Shakib triggered a collapse in Sri Lankan innings in the post lunch session but Karunaratne played superbly to score 126 before Perera hit 26 off 126 balls. Perera received support from tail-enders Rangana Herath (9 off 32 balls) and Suranga Lakmal (14 not out) as the hosts were hoping to expand their lead to give their bowlers something to fight with.

Bangladesh struck in the day’s second over through off-spinner Mehedi Hasan, who spun one sharply to bowl out opener Upul Tharanga for 26 after Sri Lanka resumed on 54-0.

But Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis shared 86 runs for the second wicket to help the hosts wipe out their first innings deficit and keep Sri Lanka’s hopes of setting a decent target alive.

Mustafizur helped Bangladesh bounce back in the contest with quick strikes in his second spell as Mendis edged an angular ball outside the off-stump to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim for 36.

Five overs later it was the turn of first-innings centurion Dinesh Chandimal, who played a loose drive to be caught behind for five.

Asela Gunaratne was adjudged

Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne (left) celebrates scoring a century against Bangladesh. —

leg-before for seven off Shakib without offering any shot before Mustafizur struck again to hand Dhananjaya de Silva a duck.

Niroshan Dickwella survived a close call for lbw but could not make use of it giving Mushfiqur his fourth catch down the leg off Shak- ib to depart for five.

An edge off Mustafizur flew to third man boundary to earn Kar- unaratne his fifth Test century but he fell in the final session edging Shakib to Soumya Sarkar at slip.

Perera batted with grit but should have been dismissed for

Lanka 139 runs ahead 338 467 D. Perera not out R. Herath lbw b Taijul S. Lakmal not out Extras (b4, lb7, w1)

1-57 (Tharanga), 2-143 (Mendis), 3-165 (Chandimal), 4-176 (Gunaratne), 5-177 (de Silva), 6-190 (Dickwella), 7-217 (Karunaratne), 8-238 (Herath)

D. Karunaratne c Soumya b Shakib 126 U. Tharanga b Mehedi 26 K. Mendis c Mushfiqur b Mustafizur 36 D. Chandimal c Mushfiqur b Mustafizur 5 A. Gunaratne lbw b Shakib 7 D. de Silva c Mushfiqur b Mustafizur 0 N. Dickwella c Mushfiqur b Shakib 5

four had umpires Aleem Dar not made an error of judgment with Bangladesh already completing their quota of reviews. Taijul Islam

Roy 16-4-36-0 (w1), Mehedi 220-67-1, Mustafizur 19-3-52-3, Shakib 30-8-613, Mosaddek 3-0-10-0, Taijul 10-1-31-1

removed Herath, who was equally stubborn but Bangladesh were yet to find an answer to Perera’s batting. — Printed and Published by Galadari Printing & Publishing (LLC), P.O. Box 11243, Dubai. Telephone: 3383535/ 3384545. Telefax: 3382238/ 3383676. email: sports@khaleejtimes.com Internet Home Page: www.khaleejtimes.com