Omar's 81 the only bright spark for Bangladesh
 

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

After their 0-3 bashing in the one-day internationals by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh looked to the 3-day practice game against a Sri Lanka Development XI to show some form of improvement at the Colombo Colts grounds yesterday.

But whatever plans or thoughts they had in mind went awry in the first session of play when they lost six wickets for 117 runs and was later dismissed for 195, a total that could hardly inject any confidence to a team preparing for a Test series.

None of their top order batsmen got a start. The only exception was experienced opener Javed Omar who played some extravagant strokes to make a top score of 81 off 109 balls and a late surge by tailender Tapash Baisya who made 54 off 76 balls with one six and six fours.

Struck a painful blow on the left forearm by Tharanga Lakshitha as early as the third over of the day, Omar displayed grit and determination which his team mates lacked to ride the storm and carve out for himself an innings which would give him a lot of confidence for the rest of the tour.

Omar took his revenge on Lakshitha when he square cut him for six to third man and then edged him for a boundary through vacant third slip to bring up his half-century in 93 minutes and 60 balls, inclusive of eight fours and a six. Overall, he hit one six and 11 fours in a stay of 169 minutes.

While Omar continued to fight it out at one end, the rest of the batting failed to rally around him. With a century very much on the cards, Omar was unfortunate to be ruled out lbw to leg-spinner Rupasinghe when he was at full stretch.

The pitch turned out to be two-paced with one end offering high bounce and the other end keeping low. Bangladesh floundered in the first hour to be 27-4 after being invited to bat first by SLC Development skipper Tilan Samaraweera who had some knowledge of how the pitch behaves on the first morning of a match here having played the initial part of his cricket at Colts before moving over to the SSC.

The Bangladeshi batsmen were unable to come to terms with the early moisture in the pitch, which afforded bounce and movement to the fast bowlers. Their tendency to play across the line continuously contributed to their own downfall.

Had they managed to keep their wickets intact in the first session of play instead of attempting to score runs, they could have come up with a better display of batting because the pitch gradually lost its early nip and turned out to be easy paced as the day progressed.

This was quite evident when SLC Development XI began their reply through an opening stand of 67 between Harsha Vithana and Shantha Kalavitigoda. Kalavitigoda playing on his home turf looked set for a lengthy innings in the middle when he remained unbeaten on 54. He had five fours in a stay of 138 minutes.

With the fast bowlers operating for most of the day, the overate was rather pedestrian and the game was due to go beyond the stipulated time when bad light intervened with 11 overs yet to be bowled.

With the exception of Jeevan Mendis who bowled the last over before lunch, the rest of the bowlers used by Samaraweera were all successful. Gayan Wijekoon and Gihan Rupasinghe had a major share of the spoils with three wickets apiece.

BANGLADESH 1ST INNINGS 

Javed Omar lbw b Rupasinghe 		81
Nafees Iqbal c De Silva b Lakshitha	 0
Thushar Imran b Lakshitha		 0
Mohammed Ashraful lbw b Waruna		 9
Shahriar Nafees b Waruna		 0
Aftab Ahmed c Kalavitigoda b Wijekoon	14
Khaled Mashud c De Silva b Wijekoon	 4
Manjural Islam lbw b Wijekoon		 4
Tapash Baisya c Waruna b Rupasinghe	54
Syed Rasel c Kalavitigoda b Rupasinghe	 4
Shahadat Hossain not out		 5
Extras (lb-1, nb-15, w-4)	 	20
TOTAL (all out, 45.3 overs, 206 mins)	195
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9, 2-9, 3-23, 4-27, 
5-68, 6-90, 7-117, 8-151, 9-169, 10-195.
BOWLING: Lakshitha 14-0-62-2 (8nb), 
Waruna 12-1-64-2 (6nb), Wijekoon 11-1-35-3 (4w, 1nb), 
Mendis 1-0-2-0, Rupasinghe 7.3-1-31-3.

SRI LANKA CRICKET DEVELOPMENT XI 
1ST INNINGS

H.E. Vithana c Nafees b Rasel	16
S. Kalavitigoda not out		54
M.K. Gajanayake b Ahmed		12
T.T. Samaraweera not out	 4
Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-13)	23
TOTAL (2 wkts at close, 
31 overs, 138 mins)		109
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-67, 2-95.
TO BAT: S.H.T. Kandamby, B.M.A.J. Mendis, 
N.R.G. Wijekoon, G.T. de Silva,  H.W.U. Waruna, 
A.B.T. Lakshitha, G. Rupasinghe.
BOWLING: Rasel 8-0-24-1 (4nb), 
Hossain 7-0-24-0 (4nb), Baisya 6-0-34-0 (5nb), 
Haque 5-2-8-0, Ahmed 5-2-9-1.