Angelo Mathews’ farewell Test. That’s what the contest between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was being billed as. On what should have been a joyous occasion, the visitors turned everything sad. Heaps of runs were scored and just three wickets fell. Now, had Sri Lanka been the ones batting, this would’ve been good. But that wasn’t the case.
Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bowl. And things didn’t go their way. Asitha Fernando sent Anamul Haque back for a golden duck with a beautiful outswinger and then, making his Test debut at the age of 29, Tharindu Ratnayake got two wickets in his first five overs.
Shanto & Mushfiqur score glorious hundreds
The ambidextrous orthodox spinner used his right-arm spin to get Shadman Islam and Mominul Haque caught at first slip. All was going well for Sri Lanka and Mathews. Bangladesh was 45/3. You couldn’t have started the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 on a better note.
But things took at sharp turn in the remaining two sessions. Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto was joined by veteran Mushfiqur Rahim in the middle and they batted the entire day. They played 73.5 overs and scored 247 runs together. Both got hundreds. There were no dropped catches and no umpire’s call decisions.
𝐀 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐍𝐚𝐣𝐦𝐮𝐥 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨!
Bangladesh’s skipper looks in ominous touch against the Lankan Lions
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Galle, not spinning much
These were chanceless knocks. The reason why Sri Lankan bowlers weren’t able to create many chances was due to the Galle pitch aiding the batters a little bit more than usual. The turn on the first day was around 3 degrees, which is about 25% less (4 degrees) than the average turn the pitch in Galle generates. Prabath Jayasuriya, who has been Sri Lanka’s best bowler at home, went wicketless.
While one can say the ball wasn’t doing as it usually does in Galle, the bowling wasn’t great. The pitch was slow and more often than not, they were either bowling too full or short. This gave Shanto and Mushfiqur enough time to negate any threat. One can’t forget that pitches in Bangladesh are slow turners as well. So, both are well equipped to bat in such conditions.
At stumps, Shanto was unbeaten at 136 and Mushfiqur at 105. Ratnayake bowled more than 1/3 of the overs (32 from 90), while Prabath wasn’t far behind, with 29 overs.
The post ‘Ambidextrous’ Tharindu Ratnayake only positive for Sri Lanka as Shanto & Mushfiqur smash hundreds appeared first on Inside Sport India.