Lanka wrap up first Test by eight wickets

Chris DHAMBARAGE reporting from Bangladesh

CRICKET: Sri Lanka notched up their sixth successive victory against Bangladesh as they pulled off a comprehensive eight wicket victory on the fourth day of the first test match concluded at the Divisional Stadium in Chittagong here Friday.

Sri Lanka needing just 163 runs to win and resuming from their overnight score of 25 for no loss reached 166 for 2 in their second innings at the stroke of lunch to go one up in the two match series.

The Lankans of course suffered an early setback losing opener Upul Tharanga without adding a run to his overnight score. But Kumar Sangakkara joined Michael Van Dort and the pair steered Sri Lanka to safety while adding 90 runs for the second wicket.

Wicket keeper batsman Sangakkara was the more aggressive hoisting one six and stroking five fours during his knock of 46 which came in 69 balls.

The pressure was certainly on Sangakkara because the Bangladeshi bowlers were exploiting the conditions to good effect with a fare amount of swing and pace.

But with Van Dort showing a great amount of temperament and Sangakkara picking up the odd boundary Sri Lanka were able to reach their target quite easily.

In fact Van Dort batted to his true potential and went on to complete only his second half century in test cricket.

Van Dort realy made amends for his first innings failure and stroked the ball with a great amount of confidence which would certainly guarantee him a place in the second test which begins next week in Bogra.

The left-hander remained unbeaten on 64 having stroked ten boundaries. But quite appropriately it was skipper Mahela Jayawardena who hit the winning runs and was unbeaten on 26 from 25 balls with five fours.

This has been a tough opening match for Mahela Jayawardena in his first full series as the official captain of the team.

He admitted that "Bangladesh really pushed us during the first two days where the exchanges were almost even. We made a lot of mistakes and conceded too many runs to the opposition. Bangladesh took the early advantage and we had to always chase behind them and fight hard to get back into the game" said Jayawardena.

Jayawardena was full of praise for the young brigade and the manner they turned things around was quite outstanding. "Players like Thilan Samaraweera, Farveez Maharoof bowled really well and showed a lot of character.

In the second innings, the bowlers took control to turn the game in our favour. The experienced players like Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara really bowled well and even Dilhara Fernando came back and bowled a decent spell to pick up the first two wickets. After that the team played good cricket that they are capable of playing," said Jayawardena.

After the first two innings it was pretty even and Sri Lanka just had only a 19 run lead. But in the second innings the manner the team bowled and fielded and the attitude they showed on the field was the turning point", said Jayawardena.

He also paid tribute to his champion off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who finished with a matchbag of nine wickets and in the process completed one thousand wickets in international cricket.

But the man of the match award went to Mohamed Asharaful who made a magnificent 136 in Bangladesh's first innings total of 319 all out.

Jayawardena said that "Asharaful batted really well on the first day and played positive cricket to stretch the game into the fourth day. None of the other players scored many runs and Asharaful deserved the man of the match award."

"People would have a different opinion on Muralitharan but he has taken so many man of the match awards and will not mind that," he said.

A dejected Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar said that the team continued to do the same mistakes after having batted well in the first innings. But still he felt that this was an improved performance from the side having lost the earlier matches by an innings.

He said that Mohamed Asharaful's century was a fantastic effort and was disappointed that the rest of the batsmen could not match his talent. Habibul Bashar however vowed to bounce back and to put up a better display in the second test match which commences in Bogra next week.

BANGLADESH - 1ST INNINGS

(319 - Mohammad Ashraful 136, Nafees Iqbal 34, Malinga 4-57, Muralitharan 3-87)

    SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS

(338 - Farveez Maharoof 72, K. Sangakkara 69, Hossain 4-83)

BANGLADESH - 2ND INNINGS

(181 - Mohammad Rafique 40, Shahriar Nafees 38, Muralitharan 6-54)

 SRI LANKA 2ND INNINGS
 (overnight 25-0)

M. Vandort not out 			64
U. Tharanga c Shahriar Nafees b Rasel 	19
K. Sangakkara c and b Haque 		46
M. Jayawardene not out 			26
Extras (b-5, lb-4, nb-2) 		11
TOTAL: (for two wkts, 37 overs) 	166
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-25, 2-115
BOWLING: Rasel 8-4-18-1, Hossain 8-1-39-0, Haque 9-1-50-1, 
Rafique 8-0-28-0, Kapali 2-0-6-0, Ashraful 2-0-16-0.
Man of the match: Mohammad Ashraful (BAN).
Umpires: Asad Rauf (PAK) and Steve Bucknor (WIS)
TV umpire: A.F.M. Akhtaruddin (BAN).
Match referee: Clive Lloyd (WIS)