da cassino： The hope Bangladesh held out early was however frittered away towards the end
The Bulletin by Sriram Veera27-Jun-2007
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Muttiah Muralitharan ended a fighting opening stand of 86 with the wicket of Shahriar Nafees © AFP
A smattering of spectators had come to see the obvious denouement to what had hitherto been a lopsided contest but were instead treated to a gritty fightback by Bangladesh. The hope held out by a spirited 86-run opening stand between Shahriar Nafees and Javed Omar and a 67-run stand between Rajin Saleh and Mohammad Ashraful was however frittered away towards the end as Ashraful committed hara-kiri and Bangladesh trailed by 255 runs, with five wickets standing, at stumps at the Sinhalese Sports Club.Sri Lanka’s first challenge was served even before a ball had been bowled. Vaashad fired a barb, perhaps as well-intended advice, at the visitors lastevening. “Bangladesh’s players should put their heads down, concentrate more. You can’tthrow away your wicket at this level.”Omar and Nafees seemed to have taken the suggestion to heart. The action began in the fourth over of the day when Omar unleashedthree square drives – a couple of which were played uppishly and kept Chaminda Vaasinterested in bowling full – that crashed into the cover-point boundary.Nafees drove one elegantly down the ground in the next Vaas over andsuddenly the batsmen had begun to find their feet.But the contest of the first session was between Nafees and Muttiah Muralitharan, whocame on in the ninth over. There was a man at deep midwicket and one at long leg yet Nafees went for his slog sweeps. Murali adjusted bybowling fuller and he was drilled down the ground, and once, through thecover region. After he was slog swept for yet another boundary, Muraliripped one full and outside off. Nafees attempted another slog sweep butmisjudged the length and the ball went to the left ofMurali, who pulled off a sharp catch.The bowling got more incisive in the second session as the seamers foundsome reverse swing; Lasith Malinga slung in furious yorkers which dipped inlate to threaten the toe if not the stumps, while Vaas got hisoffcutters to tease the outside edge and the batsmen were on the back foot.Malinga was the first to strike. A searing yorker crashed into the backboot catching Omar plumb and leaving him hobbling in pain. Jayawardene immediately went for the kill and replaced Murali with Vaas, whostarted to get the ball to cut away from the batsmen. Saleh hung on, stabbing at afew that didn’t carry to the slips. Habibul Bashar played a few drives but Vaas induced a nick fromone such attempted drive.
Javed Omar was a study in concentration as he did his best to salvage the situation for the tourists © Getty Images
Even Murali looked more dangerous in the second session. There wasn’t muchbite in the track, which offered slow spin, and Murali had to rely on flightand variation to test the batsmen. Ashraful and Saleh approached him withdifferent techniques: while Ashraful chose to lunge forward to smother thespin, Saleh preferred to go back and play it off the track. Both edged afew on to the pad to keep the close-in fielders interested but none poppedup into the palms.The game entered the final session, something that had looked remote afterBangladesh’s dismal first-innings display. Saleh played an immensely patientknock, the state of play fitted him to a T. All he had to do was defend and forget about scoring runs. He got into a few problems whilepressing forward and was reprieved twice, on 37 and 43. On the firstoccasion he hung his bat out at a Fernando delivery but Kumar Sangakkaralet him off at first slip; he then played a loose defensive prod at Muraliwithout leaning fully forward but a simple chance was messed up by MalingaWarnapura at short-leg.Fernando, who was the best seamer on view in the pre-lunch period,continued to steam in in the last session. Balls leapt up from a sluggishtrack, surprising the batsmen into ungainly prods. After seeing Salehhanging back to keep away his short-pitched stuff, he went around thewicket to change the angle. He slipped in a few full-pitched deliveriesthat went with the angle to beat the bat. He would have got his man hadSangakkara held a relatively simple chance.Fernando’s duel with Ashraful was equally fascinating. There was a volley of bouncers, some of which hit the gloves and a couple crashed into shoulderbut Ashraful, who had got out pulling in the first innings, desisted fromattacking.Ashraful was admirably patient for the best part of his stay but the demon ofimpatience resurfaced every now and then. He had faced 94 balls for just 22 whenhe charged down the track to Murali to loft him just over mid on. Thatfour had a rather strange effect on Ashraful. He twice tried to reversesweep Murali in the same over and was lucky to get away the second timewhen Asad Rauf negated a close shout for lbw.However, 32 balls after that shout, the adrenalin rush returned toterminate his knock. Saleh had just fallen but Ashraful charged out toMurali only to hole out to long on. The Bangladesh wall had begun to crack.