Mathews and Silva keep Sri Lanka steady

Ebadot Hossain cleaned up Sri Lanka's night watchman, Kasun Rajitha, with the second ball of the morning, and Shakib Al Hasan looped one through Dimuth Karunaratne's defences mid-way through the session, but Sri Lanka continued to make progress, if a little more sedately than they had on day two. By lunch, they were still 155 runs behind Bangladesh but had six wickets in hand. Angelo Mathews had ambled to 25 not out off 76, while Dhananjaya de Silva had made a brisk 30 off 40.

The two wickets, however, mean that the teams remain evenly placed in the Test. Sri Lanka have plenty of batting to come, and have two settled men at the crease. But the surface is now beginning to show signs of wear. Shakib's delivery to dismiss Karunaratne was evidence of the kind of dangerous turn that is often seen at the back end of most Mirpur Tests. There was also variable bounce for the quicks, and as a result, several inside edges past the stumps.

Both Bangladesh's wicket-taking deliveries were spectacular. Ebadot had angled the ball into Rajitha, then got it to move away off the deck to beat the outside edge and hit off stump. It was a delivery that might have had a much better batter in trouble.

Shakib's deliciously tossed-up ball to Karunaratne had come somewhat against the run of play, as Kaurnaratne had begun to seem comfortable at the crease. But having darted several in earlier in that over, Shakib tempted the batter to come forward for a big drive, then got the ball to dip, and spin between his bat and pad, and into middle stump. Karunaratne had added only ten to his overnight score of 70.

Mathews ventured only two boundaries in his 76-ball stay, and was largely content to defend. He was particularly watchful against Ebadot and Shakib, who bowled the most probing lines in this session.

de Silva was much more ambitious. He had whipped his second ball - off Khaled Ahmed - for four through square leg, and continued to search proactively for runs, though he too respected Ebadot early on. Just before lunch, however, he struck Ebadot for three fours in one over. Two of those boundaries were the result of excellent timing - through square leg and cover. The other was from a thick outside edge that went fine of short third man.

Source: ESPNcricinfo