Murali wreaks havoc - Bangladesh lose inside three days
 

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The wily spin of Muttiah Muralitharan and the scorching pace of Lasith Malinga proved to much for Test minnows Bangladesh as they succumbed to an innings and 96 runs defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the first cricket Test which ended before lunch on the third day at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Bangladesh who began the day at 36-3 were bundled out for their lowest ever Test total - 86. They lost their last seven wickets within a matter of 78 minutes. It was a poor batting performance, which would once again raise questions from their critics about their ability to continue at this level of cricket. If rain had not disrupted play, the Test literally lasted for just two and a half days. Bangladesh scored 188 in their first innings and Sri Lanka 370-9 declared.

The victory to say the least came on a platter for Sri Lanka who hardly raised a sweat in capturing those last seven wickets. Once Chaminda Vaas had initiated the break in the second over of the morning, it was Muralitharan who spun a web around the Bangladeshi batsmen. They were at sea against him on a helpful pitch.

Muralitharan picked up his 47th time five-for in an innings with figures of six for 18 in 10.4 overs to recommence his challenge for Australian spin maestro Shane Warne's world record of 623 wickets from 128 Tests.With a bag of nine wickets in the match, Muralitharan who was out of international cricket for 13 months because of a shoulder injury, lifted his tally to 558 wickets from 94 Tests.

Malinga fired out two batsmen to finish with three wickets on a bowler friendly pitch where the batsmen struggled to score runs. The defeat was Bangladesh's 34th in 39 Tests and their previous lowest total was 87 against West Indies at Dhaka in 2002-03. It was also their lowest total against Sri Lanka the previous low being 90 at the SSC in 2001-02.

Marvan sympathetic

Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu was more sympathetic towards Bangladesh when he said that along the way Sri Lanka would have also experienced similar defeats.

"We do respect Bangladesh, but it is very early stages for them playing experienced sides like us. We don't want to discourage them by saying anything that might affect their game. It will take time for them to come up and compete with the big boys," said Atapattu. "After the first session of the opening day we never thought the win would come so easy.

They were 155-2 just after lunch, but from then onwards probably one bad shot changed the whole morale of the team and allowed us to come back right into the game," he said.

Atapattu put down to the fact that none of the Sri Lankan batsmen were able to score a hundred against a depleted Bangladesh bowling attack to a bit of complacency and good deliveries.

"Most of us got start but didn't go on to make a big score. Some batsmen got out playing casual shots but don't take anything away from their spinners. They exploited the wicket and the conditions and bowled a good line and length," said Atapattu.

Whatmore optimistic

Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore said that he was disappointed that his team did not fight harder to prevent the inevitable.

"I was a bit upset by the level of resistance. Sri Lanka was going to win the match there was no question unless it rained for three days. I was always interested to see how much fight the boys were prepared to show. The degree of difficulty was more on the mental side and also surface wise," said Whatmore.

Looking at the broader side of the picture Whatmore said that if you were looking at teams for the future you need not look any further than Bangladesh.

"At some point in the future we will have a good team. What we are experiencing now is along the way losses and frustrations that comes along with potential teams," said Whatmore.

He said the public back in Bangladesh had a huge interest in the sport and it was not easy for them to accept defeats of this nature.

"They too are looking for wins and evidence of a bit of fight. I have been telling the media to try and be realistic in where we are rather than get carried away with a win here and a win there, which is fantastic for the team but it's a realistic view in my opinion. We are at a stage now where we need to be more consistent not necessarily reflecting that in wins," he said.

Murali realistic

Man of the match Muralitharan said his figures of six wickets for 18 runs off 10.4 overs was not the easiest haul he had in his career. "I got seven wickets in Galle against Australia and also in Kandy.

It depends on the wickets and the conditions you play. You can't say because the opposition is weak you can get wickets easily," said Muralitharan.

"The conditions helped the spinners and that's why batsmen found it difficult to score a hundred on this surface. The pitch was two-paced. It spun and bounced while some balls kept low.

The 370 runs we got would have been worth about 600 runs on any other ground. Here, we got very friendly spinning wickets, not normal as we thought. I didn't bowl that well in the first innings but I got my rhythm right in the second, and bowled well," he said.

Muralitharan said he seldom uses the 'doosra' delivery to get wickets, but only as an element of surprise to fox the batsmen.

He said the Sara Stadium pitch, which is his home venue mostly favours the batsmen and that the bowlers would have to work hard for their wickets.

"We always expect the opposition to come back at us hard. Cricket is a funny game. Who thought that England would win the Ashes?"

BANGLADESH 
1ST INNINGS 188 
SRI LANKA 
1ST INNINGS 370 
BANGLADESH 
2ND INNINGS
(Overnight 36-3) 
Javed Omar c Sangakkara b Malinga 		 9 
Shahriar Nafees b Muralitharan 			13 
Habibul Bashar c Sangakkara b Vaas  		15 
Mohammed Ashraful lbw b Muralitharan  		 0 
Thushar Imran b Muralitharan    		 3 
Aftab Ahmed c Samaraweera b Muralitharan  	 8 
Khaled Mashud b Malinga  			15 
Syed  Rasel b Malinga  				 1 
Shahadat Hossain not out  			 5 
Enamul Haque st Sangakkara b Muralitharan	 2 
Extras (b-4, nb-2, w-5) 			11         
TOTAL (all out, 27.4 overs, 121 mins) 		86
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9 (Omar), 2-35 (Nafees), 
3-35 (Ashraful), 4-39 (Bashar), 5-47  (Imran), 
6-50 (Ahmed), 7-59 (Rafique), 8-73 (Rasel), 
9-83 (Mashud), 10-86  (Haque).  
BOWLING: Vaas 10-4-31-1, Malinga 6-1-32-2 (5w, 1nb), 
Muralitharan 10.4-4-18-6 (1nb), Herath 1-0-1-0. 
Second Test: September 20-24 at Saravanamuttu Stadium.