Sri Lanka heap umiliation

on Bangaladesh - beat them by an innings and 234 runs with more than a day to spare

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan with a matchbag of nine wickets guided Sri Lanka to a rousing innings and 234 run victory over Bangladesh in the first test match concluded at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Maitland Place yesterday.

The manner in which the Lankans completed their task was really outstanding with the match ending just half an hour into the fourth day’s play and it was also their biggest victory over Bangladesh.

Their previous biggest victory was recorded in 2002 at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium where they triumphed by an innings and 196 runs. This also marked Sri Lanka’s eighth successive victory against Bangladesh with five of them by an innings.

In fact Sri Lanka’s dominance against the test minnows have been so much in the past that they have never required a fifth day to seal victory. Four of the test matches have ended inside three days and the remaining three games have ended with a day to spare.

Muralitharan who captured five wickets in the first innings produced another fine performance to return with the figures of four wickets for 87 runs from 36.1 overs. The 35 year old off spinner seem to have a liking with the Bangladesh batsmen as now he has an impressive tally of 59 wickets in just seven test matches against Bangladesh.

Muralitharan who is chasing retired Australian leg spinner Shane Warne’s World record of 708 wickets, increased his overall tally to 683 and is just 25 wickets away from another milestone. Muralitharan picked up the wickets of Mashrafe Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain following his two wickets on the third day to finish with a four wicket haul.

Muralithran and Lasith Malinga formed an ideal pace spin combination for Sri Lanka as the pair destroyed the Bangladesh late order batsmen with both claiming four wickets each.

Bangladesh who resumed their second innings at 233 for 5 folded up for 254 runs within half an hour of the start of the fourth days play.

Sri Lanka of course got into their act in the tenth delivery of the day with Malinga producing another magnificent yorker to deceive Khaled Mashud after Bangladesh had added just five runs to their overnight score.

Mashrafe Mortaza struck two boundaries to relieve pressure but soon he became Muralitharan’s third victim being trapped leg before from a slower delivery. Lasith Malinga made it even more easy for Sri Lanka by striking twice in one over before Muralitharan picked up the final wicket to signal a comprehensive victory for Sri Lanka.

This was Bangladesh’s 41st defeat in 47 matches since having obtained test status in 2000 with their solitary victory coming against the struggling Zimbabwe team.

Five of their test matches have been drawn. The second test of the three match series begins on Tuesday at the P. Saravanamuttu stadium.

BANGLADESH - 1ST INNINGS:
89 (M. Muralitharan 5-15, D. Fernando 3-33)

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS:
 577-6 decl (M. Vandort 117, M. Jayawardene 127,
	     P. Jayawardene 120 not out, C. Vaas 100 not out,
             S. Hossain 2-102)

ANGLADESH - 2ND INNINGS
(overnight 233-5):

Javed Omar lbw b Malinga			62
Shahriar Nafees c and b Muralitharan		38
Rajin Saleh c M. Jayawardene b Diishan		51
Habibul Bashar c P. Jayawardene b Vaas		17
Mohammad Ashraful c Vaas b Muralitharan		37
Shakib-Al Hasan c Warnapura b Malinga		 8
Khaled Mashud b Malinga				 1
Mashrafe Mortaza lbw b Muralitharan		 9
Mohammad Rafique b Malinga			 0
Shahadat Hossain st P. Jayawardene b Muralitharan1
Abdur Razzak not out				 0
EXTRAS: (B-2, LB-10, NB-17, W-1)30

TOTAL						254

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-86 (Nafees), 2-126 (Omar),
		 3-160 (Bashar), 4-227 (Saleh),
		 5-231 (Ashraful), 6-238 (Mashud),
		 7-250 (Mortaza), 8-252 (Hasan),
		 9-253 (Rafique)

BOWLING: Vaas 12-3-36-1 (nb5), Malinga 17-2-80-4 (nb11, w1),
	 Muralitharan 36.1-12-87-4, Fernando 15-5-28-0 (nb1),
	 Dilshan 7-3-11-1

Overs: 87.1