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Colombo - Bangladesh made a strong start to their 100th Test on Wednesday
as they reduced Sri Lanka to 70/4 at lunch on the opening day of their match in
Colombo, with teenage off-spinner Mehedi Hasan taking two wickets.
Fast bowlers Mustafizur Rahman and Subashis Roy also each
claimed a wicket apiece as the visitors made early inroads in their quest to
draw level in the second match of a two-Test series.
Mustafizur gave the visitors a dream start in the milestone
Test when he forced an edge from opener Dimuth Karunaratne, having cranked up
the pressure on the batsmen by bowling three successive maidens.
Mehedi took a brilliant catch at gully as Karunaratne
departed after making just seven runs.
Mehedi then struck in his third over, enticing Kusal Mendis
out of his crease before Mushfiqur Rahim completed the stumping.
Mendis was man-of-the-match in the first Test in Galle after
scoring 194 but he departed this time having scored just five.
Sri Lanka's troubles deepened when Upul Tharanga edged
Mehedi to Soumya Sarkar at slip for 15 after earlier being given a reprieve by
a television replay when he was given out lbw off Mustafizur for six.
Dinesh Chandimal, unbeaten 27 at lunch, and Asela Gunaratne
tried to revive the innings but Subashis struck on the stroke of lunchtime when
he trapped Gunaratne lbw for 13.
Bangladesh suffered a blow on the eve of the match when wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Das was ruled out with a rib fracture.
Captain Mushfiqur returned to wicketkeeping duties while
batsman Mosaddek Hossain was handed his Test debut.
Imrul Kayes, Sabbir Rahman and Taijul Islam were also called
up to the Bangladeshi starting line-up with Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah and
Taskin Ahmed making way.
Sri Lanka made one change to the team that won the first Test in Galle bringing in Dhananjaya de Silva for Lahiru Kumara.
