Gritty Bangladesh hold on for draw

Bangladesh’s Mominul Haque struck an unbeaten 100 as his side managed to a draw the second Test against Sri Lanka on the final day.

Fifth day scorecard

Sri Lanka first innings 587  Bangladesh first innings 426 Sri Lanka second innings 305-4d Bangladesh second innings T Iqbal b Vithanage 31 S Rahman b Perera 45 I Kayes lbw b Perera 25 M Haque not out 100 S Hasan not out 43 Extras (b 12, lb 2, nb 13) 27 Total (3 wickets; 84.4 overs) 271 Fall of wickets 1-71, 2-81, 3-151

After Haque completed his third century, the two captains have decided to call this a draw with 14 overs to spare.

Bangladesh had reached 271-3 when the decision was made. Shakib Al Hasan was unbeaten on 43, while Shamsur Rahman made 45 and Tamim iqbal contributed 31.

Sri Lanka started their final bid to push for a win in the final session but Haque and Hasan denied them any breakthrough.

The former looked nervous as he stood on the brink of his the century. After several tense moments, he finally reached the 100-run mark with a single off Nuwan Pradeep.

Dilruwan Perera ended with 2-55 while Kithuruwan Vithanage had a figure of 1-73.

Sri Lanka set a huge target of 467, having accumulated two big scores thanks chiefly to Kumar Sangakkara, who became only the second man in Test history to score a triple-century and a century in the same game. 

“I think the wicket was pretty good to bat and my job was to score as many runs for the side,” said Sangakkara who was named man of the match as well as player of the series.

“All the batsmen when they walk out, the main idea is to bat long and makes sure there’s a foundation upon which the team can build and that’s what we did. It is my first triple, so that’s special. Not probably one of my difficult hundreds, but in terms of concentration this was up there.”