Sri Lanka are closing in on victory and another Test series sweep in Bangladesh after reducing the host to 268 for seven in their improbable chase of a 511-run target.
Pacer Lahiru Kumara, left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuirya and occasional bowler Kamindu Mendis took two wickets each to leave Bangladesh in survival mode on day four of the second and last Test in Chattogram.
Bangladesh barely forced a fifth day. At stumps, Mehidy Hasan was on 44 from 49 balls after hitting seven fours, and Taijul Islam was on 10.
That left them 243 runs from an unlikely victory, but 511 was never on. Nobody could resist Sri Lanka’s bowling.
Mominul Haque’s second fifty in the series helped Bangladesh go past 200 for the first time in five Test innings dating to December. But he was dismissed on 50 off 56 after hitting eight fours and one six.
Mominul said: “No excuse, as a batting unit, we played extremely bad cricket. We couldn’t bat according to our potential. We have to take the responsibility. Today, most of the batters, including me, got out after getting set. The wicket was good to bat on.”
Sri Lanka started the day batting and allowed Angelo Mathews to score his first half-century of the series and 41st in his career.
Sri Lanka resumed their second innings on 102 for six, and declared at 157 for seven shortly after Mathews was bowled by Shakib Al Hasan for 56 after hitting five boundaries. Prabath Jayasuriya was unbeaten on 28.
Sri Lanka posted 531 in their first innings, the highest total without any batsman scoring a century, and took a 353-run lead without enforcing the follow-on. They have never lost a Test in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh batted eight overs without loss to lunch, then lost their first wicket in the second over after the interval. Jayasuriya broke up the openers when he dismissed Mahmudul Hasan on 24.
Then pacer Vishwa Fernando got Zakir Hasan caught on 19 by Dhananjaya de Silva at first slip.
Najmul Hossain Shanto, the Bangladesh captain, reached double digits for the first time in the series but appeared uncomfortable throughout his stay before being bowled on 20 by Kumara.
Mominul counterattacked and raised his 18th test fifty off 55 balls, pulling pacer Asitha Fernando down to fine leg for a single. He was out off the next delivery, top-edging a sweep of Jayasuriya straight to square leg.
Shakib and Liton Das came together at 132 for four and became Bangladesh’s last great hopes. They fought for more than 16 overs, bridging tea, and combined for 61 runs, but were out in the space of four runs.
Shakib, playing his first test in a year, had 36 off 53 balls when he was baffled by Kamindu’s huge turn and gave the bowler his first wicket in Test cricket.
Kamindu also took out Shahadat Hossain for 15 before Liton was undone by a short delivery from Kumara and edged behind on 38.
Sri Lanka won the first Test by 328 runs.
