Karunaratne, Thirimanne guide Sri Lanka to cautious start on first morning
Sri Lanka made a cautious start as they moved to 66 for no loss at lunch on the first day. Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne were unbeaten on 32 each. Both batters were watchful against Bangladesh's pace bowlers, who found a bit of movement in the first hour.
Although the scoring eased a bit in the latter half of the session, it brought the only chance before lunch. In his second spell, Taskin Ahmed forced errant shots from both batters. Karunaratne edged him to slip where Najmul Hossain Shanto dropped a straightforward chance. Shortly before that incident, Taskin drew an uppish drive from Karunaratne, which fell just short of Mominul Haque at mid-off. In the following over, Thirimanne edged past Mehidy Hasan Miraz who dived in vain to his right from gully.
Taskin bowled nine overs across two spells, and impressed in both, while Abu Jayed, who went wicketless in the first Test, bowled with a lot more discipline. Shoriful Islam, the left-arm quick on his Test debut, bowled well in his first couple of overs before conceding two fours. He was replaced soon afterwards. Captain Mominul had brought on spin in the fifth over, but Mehidy Hasan Miraz was mostly steady, without beating the bat frequently.
Karunaratne meanwhile reached 5,000 Test runs with a single towards point in the 11th over of the match. The pair added 114 runs for the opening stand in the first Test, with Karunaratne going on to hit his maiden double-century, while Thirimanne made 58.
Both teams made interesting changes to their line-up. The home side opted for a two-pronged pace attack, by including Praveen Jayawickrama, the debutant left-arm spinner, and offspinning allrounder Ramesh Mendis. Bangladesh, however, kept their five-member bowling attack, including three seamers. They brought in Shoriful in place of Ebadat Hossain, an indicator that perhaps he didn't recover from the first Test in Pallekele that ended a few days ago. Bangladesh also kept both their frontline spinners in the line-up.
Source: ESPNcricinfo
