Taijul Islam claimed a five-wicket haul, but batting frailties put Bangladesh on the brink of an innings defeat against Sri Lanka as they trailed by 96 runs on the third day of their second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo on Friday.
Liton Das (13) remained unbeaten as the sole batter when stumps were called, as Bangladesh stumbled to 115-6 after Sri Lanka took a first-innings lead of 211 runs.
Anamul Haque, who took a different path after two consecutive ducks, began to attack but couldn鈥檛 last long before falling to a short ball from Asitha Fernando that hit his bottom edge.
The opener scored a run-a-ball 19, while Shadman Islam followed him, attempting to drive Prabath Jayasuriya on a ball that never turned.
Mominul Haque鈥檚 tour of throwing his wickets away continued as he fell to Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya De Silva once again. The left-handed batter finished the series with scores of 29, 14, 21, and 15, respectively.
The Lankan captain struck again to trap his counterpart Najmul Hossain Shanto lbw after the latter was dropped by stand-in wicketkeeper Lahiru Udana.
Mushfiqur Rahim was undone by a beauty from Jayasuriya, who seemed to get back the mojo he had been searching for.聽
Mehidy Hasan Miraz was the last batter to depart, with two balls remaining in scheduled play, when Tharindu Rathnayake trapped him lbw, which Sri Lanka got via a successful review.
That diminished the effort of the bowlers, especially Taijul, to get Sri Lanka鈥檚 last eight Sri Lankan wickets for 153 runs.
Bangladesh made an early breakthrough in the morning after the second new ball was taken when Pathum Nissanka pushed straight to cover off a delivery from Taijul after scoring 158.
Taijul had De Silva lbw, while Nahid Rana took his first wicket of the series when Prabath Jayasuriya was caught at third slip.
Nayeem Hasan鈥檚 arm ball shattered the stumps of Kamindu Mendis for a successful morning session for the visitors.
The hosts added a further 74 runs with the remaining four wickets, thanks largely to Kusal Mendis鈥� counter-attack 84 off 87 balls, including eight fours and two sixes.
After Nayeem bowled Sonal Dinusha, Taijul completed his 17th five-wicket haul by dismissing Rathnayake and Fernando, while Mendis was run out attempting to steal a second.
This was Taijul鈥檚 fifth five-for in away Tests, joint most with Shakib Al Hasan for a Bangladeshi bowler.聽
Taijul, however, couldn鈥檛 enjoy his success as much as he wanted to.聽
鈥業 think when we do something good away, it feels good as a team. I can say that, when we do something good as a team, that feels better,鈥� said the left-arm spinner after the day鈥檚 play.聽
He also pointed out that they should have performed better with the bat in the first innings.
He said, 鈥極ur batting wasn鈥檛 that good. In the first innings, the wicket was good. Each batter got out after getting set. Had there been two hundreds or two fifties, the situation might have been different.鈥�
But, the 33-year-old could not offer a specific reason for their failures.
鈥榃e didn鈥檛 play well. There is no particular reason; we just couldn鈥檛 play well as a team,鈥� he added.
