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July 12, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

Heavy rain once again disrupted the ongoing third and final test at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy. Just around 29 overs were possible but Sri Lanka made lot of progress as they bowled out the visitors for a paltry 131. Muttiah Muralitharan was as usual the chief tormentor, this time collecting six wickets. Murali is certainly making most of this weak opponents to race along the world bowling records. He had gone past taking 100 test wickets at this stadium which is his own ground.

Resuming at 72 for 4, Bangladesh lost Tushar Imran to a nothing shot to a normal delivery that was slanting across him from the left armer Sujeewa de Silva. Tushar Imran departed after making 17, facing 40 deliveries to have Bangladesh at 98 for 5. That brought in the young but mature Mushfiqur Rahim, the teenage wicket keeper to join his skipper. Ashraful was lucky to survive a loud caught behind chance off Murali but seemed to have lost his concentration because of that as he fell in a similar fashion to that of Tushar Imran, nicking one behind off Sujeewa. Ashraful otherwise was very calm and solid in his innings, one mistake from him and that was it for Bangladesh. Ashraful could get just 26 following his unbeaten century in the last test.

Bangladesh from 111 for 6 became 131 all out in the next seven overs with Mushfiqur Rahim watching helplessly at one end as his colleagues went down in a hurry. That included the two all rounders - Mashrafe Mortaza and Mohammad Rafiqe with both of them continuing to bat below par. All the four wickets to fall after Ashraful's were captured by Murali who ended up with 6 for 28 in 14.5 overs. Some one like Murali would have loved to play a five-test series against Bangladesh! For the record, Mushfiqur Rahim remained unbeaten on 11 from 46 balls which was a good vigil for any test batsman. The Tigers lost six wickets for 59 runs in 19.5 overs today.

In their first innings, Sri Lanka got 30 for no loss on the board before rain and bad light took over the Asgiriya Stadium yet again. There was a sense of urgency from Michael Vandort in his 29-ball 24 laced with five fours while Upul Tharanga worked his way into the middle with a patient 4 from 24 balls. With still three more days left in the match, SL will be confident of a clean sweep considering the spineless Bangladeshi batting.

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