Bangladesh needs 267 runs to win with five wickets in hand
December 31, 2008
Skipper Mohammad Ashraful shook off a lean patch to score his eighth fifty keeping Bangladesh alive in the first Test of Grameenphone Series against Sri Lanka, needing 267 runs to win on the fifth and final day with five wickets in hand.
Ashraful, who crossed the 2000-run mark, remained at the crease with Shakib Al Hasan till the end of the fourth day after putting on 74 runs in the sixth wicket stand as the hosts finished the day on 254 for five in 78 overs in their second innings at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka on Wednesday.
Ashraful remained unbeaten on 70 off 153 balls that included 11 fours while number seven Shakib was batting on 34 off 94 balls with two fours.
During his 2nd career fifty against the Lankans, Ashraful drove Muralitharan to cover for a boundary in the 58th over. This fifty should help the skipper to come out of his bad form after going without a fifty plus score for 18 innings in a row since his 129-run unbeaten knock against the Lankans in Colombo last year. Earlier, chasing an improbable target of 521, openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes got the chase off to a sound start with some scorching drives and cuts through the off side and down the ground.
They seemed to be heading for unbroken batting through the session but just two balls before lunch lost a wicket against the run of play when Kayes was brilliantly run out by a direct hit from Dilshan for 13 runs off 16 balls with three fours leaving Bangladesh score at 40/1 in 7.4 overs.
Number three Junaed Siddique pairing with Tamim then tried to repair the innings but Tamim’s promising innings went to waste when his edge of a Dammika Prasad delivery went to the hands of wicket keeper Prasanna Jayawardene. Tamim’s polished 47-run innings off 53 balls included eight colorful fours.
Junaed also departed for 37 off 74 balls with five fours and a six while trying to leave a Muralitharan delivery that kissed his glove on way to Mahela at first slip after a 52-run stand with Rakibul in the 3rd wicket. Mehrab Jr was the last Bangladesh batsman to fall for 23 as the 3rd scalp of Muralitharan.
Muralitharan claimed three wickets for 85 runs in 28 overs while pacer Dammika Prasad took the other wicket giving away 68 runs. Earlier, as Sri Lanka resumed with overnight of 291/4 in 85 overs, skipper Mahela Jayawardene reached his highest knock against Bangladesh as the tourists declared their 2nd innings at 405/6 in 108 overs to give an impossible target of over five-hundred runs to the hosts.
Sri Lanka resumed their innings after a delay of 20 minutes due to early morning moisture – with a lead of 406 – but didn’t really force the pace from the beginning.
Jayawardene reached his ninth 150-plus score steering the ball to third man but got a little too cheeky against left-arm spin of Mehrab Hossain Jr, top-edging a reverse sweep to first slip for 166 off 269 balls with 19 fours and a six.
Shakib Al Hasan, who could nearly have got another overnight batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan on 16, later got him to edge to the keeper on 47 while trying to steer it away to third man. Sri Lanka declared shortly afterwards, giving Bangladesh eight overs to survive before lunch. Mehrab and Mashrafe finished their spell picking two wickets each for 37 and 59 runs respectively.
Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan earlier made a six-wicket haul to wrap up Bangladesh for 178 in the first innings after Shakib Al Hasan’s five-wicket haul forced Sri Lanka to fold their 1st innings at 293.
Source: The Daily Star
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