Bangladesh lost their firm grip on the first Test against Sri Lanka as they collapsed on the late afternoon on the second day at the Galle International Stadium in Galle on Wednesday.
They managed 484-9 in 151 overs, with the last pair, Hasan Mahmud and Nahid Rana, batting without scoring, after losing five wickets for 26 runs on a batting-friendly wicket.
After losing Najmul Hossain Shanto in the seventh over of the day, Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das took control in their stand of 149 runs.
While Liton showed intent to play shots from the beginning, Mushfiq was rather guarded with his approach. He played 350 deliveries to score 163 runs. This was the sixth time he faced 300 or more deliveries in an innings, the highest among Bangladeshi batters.
However, Mushfiq and Liton fell in consecutive overs, which triggered a collapse in the Bangladesh innings and opened a floodgate for the Sri Lankan bowlers.
Their spinners, especially Tharindu Rathnayake, were bowling in a negative line outside leg stump to frustrate Liton and Mushfiq.
Liton finally fell for it when he tried to reverse sweep off Rathnayake while eyeing a century. With Mushfiq being gone, Liton could鈥檝e timed it better to attack Rathnayake through that line.
However, Bangladesh鈥檚 senior assistant coach Muhammad Salah Uddin defended Liton, saying that it was just a mistake.
鈥楲iton batted with much control. He batted calmly. I think it was his only bad shot in the game. It can happen in cricket. He can learn from this and play bigger innings. I think he will not repeat the mistake again,鈥� Salah Uddin told the reporters after the day鈥檚 play.
However, Bangladesh鈥檚 overall approach to their batting in the innings might come into question as they took it slow.
Their run rate of 3.20聽聽聽聽聽 in the innings so far is the second lowest among the teams who scored at least 450 runs in an innings since the start of 2024.
Where it seemed hard to induce the batters to make mistakes, scoring heavily in the first innings might come in handy later in the match.
Salah Uddin, too, couldn鈥檛 claim that they got an upper hand despite batting for almost two days.
鈥業t is hard to tell who is in the driving seat,鈥� he said. 鈥業t depends on who is winning each session. We didn鈥檛 do well in the first session yesterday and the last session today. We will try to control the match right till the end by winning each session.鈥�
鈥楾he wicket is still batting friendly; we have to work hard to take wickets. Sri Lanka bowled well, according to their plans, so our batters needed to work hard to get the runs. I expect our bowlers to do the same,鈥� he added.
However, Salah Uddin said that they had ample runs on the board.
He said, 鈥極ur batting could have been a little better in the last session. I still think we have enough runs on the board. If we bowl well, I think we can control the game.鈥�
He also hoped that the wicket would deteriorate enough so that their spinner would come in useful.
鈥業t still looks like a batting-friendly pitch. I hope the wicket can break in the next couple of days. Our spinners can bowl on this track. We have two good fast bowlers. I hope they can swing the ball,鈥� said Salah Uddin.
