|
Bangladesh
struggle on a damp opening day at Kandy |
July 11, 2007 (Link to
Scorecard)
 Rain,
wet outfield and bad light were the prominent
features of the opening day's play of the third
and final Test at Kandy. Just 29 overs were
bowled in the entire day's play in which
Bangladesh have already lost four wickets for 72
runs on the board.
Sri Lanka went into this
match making three changes. One of those changes
were right at the top with Malinda Warnapura
making way to the regular opener Upul Tharanga.
Chaminda Vaas who had returned to Middlesex has
been replaced with another left armer in Sujeewa
de Silva. Dilhara Fernando was rested allowing
Farveez Maharoof, his first opportunity of the
series. The Tigers who were put into bat first
by Mahela Jayawardene had made two changes with
Tushar Imran and Syed Rasel coming in for Mehrab
Hossain Jr and Mohammad Sharif.
Lasith Malinga struck in
his second over trapping the stubborn Javed Omar
in front of the wicket. But Sri Lanka were kept
at bay by a promising second wicket partnership
between Shahriar Nafees and former skipper
Habibul Bashar. Rain took over the Asgiriya
Stadium to prevent the 13th over being bowled
for a long time. An early lunch was taken with
Bangladesh at 48 for 1. Bashar fell right in the
first over after play had resumed done in by a
sharp incutter from Farveez Maharoof. For Bashar,
it was another routine failure, this time
getting 18 after surviving 25 balls. But having
said that it wasn't absolutely clear if Bashar
indeed got a faint nick to the keeper or not.
In the post lunch
session, another rain break his the test match
which killed almost two hours of play. After
play resumed, Muralitharan managed to break a
29-ball resistance from Rajin Saleh with a
doosra and then finally got the opener Shahriar
Nafees slogging his way back into the pavilion.
Shahriar Nafees made 29 from 77 balls with 4
fours with his concentration not sustained well
because of too many breaks in the game. Play had
to be called off soon because of bad light with
Mohammad Ashraful and Tushar Imran surviving a
testing period.
Top of the Page |
Related Links