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July 03, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

The cricketing world is seriously thinking about the worth of having Bangladesh as a Test playing nation. Although they are giving their opposition a scare in the limited version of the game, it is the longer version of the game that is exposing their abilities to compete and survive. On Tuesday, the Mohammad Ashraful led Tigers have bagged a new record as they got all out for 62 which is their lowest ever total in their history. The last test match saw them getting bowled out for 89 in 32.3 overs which is indeed making a mockery of Test Match Cricket. The only achievement they could make today was that they barely avoided the embarrassment of getting bowled out in the first session of a test match by just a wicket.

The wicket at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium had some grass in it to make things lively. Sri Lankan cricketers not interesting in playing a lengthy test match put the opposition in after winning the toss and they just had to bowl 25.2 overs to wrap up Bangladesh! It didn't matter even if Bangladesh had made a few changes in their line up for the sake of making them. Lasith Malinga was scorching hot for the Tigers, giving him four wickets in his first spell of seven overs. Dilhara Fernando coming in as number change picked up two wickets and Muralitharan like always did the clean up job taking four wickets in just 32 deliveries! Rajin Saleh had the honour of being the top scorer making just 21, he would be proud of atleast surviving 62 balls. Ashraful who had walked in at 22 for 3 couldn't even open his account falling to a brilliant bat pad catch off Lasith Malinga.

Michael Vandort, the last test match centurion missed out today getting bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza for 14. His was the only wicket going down as the rest of the session was all Malinda Warnapura's and Kumar Sangakkara's. Warnapura overcame the disappointment of getting out to a first ball duck in his maiden test match innings with 79 facing 119 balls with 9 fours. Sangakkara got 55 from 110 with 5 fours with Sri Lanka closing the day at 154 for 1 in 45.3 overs. The weather this time around looks cloudy with a few showers expected that could at the most make the test match a bit longer.

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