Muralitharan (5/79) puts Sri Lanka on top 

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Bangladesh

CRICKET: BOGRA, Bangladesh, Wednesday - Muttiah Muralitharan captured his 50th five-wicket haul and moved closer towards completing another milestone as Sri Lanka took a firm grip on day one of the historic second test match against Bangladesh at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra here Wednesday.

The champion off spinner returned outstanding figures of five wickets for 79 as Bangladesh collapsed to 234 in the first innings after skipper Habibul Bashar had won the toss and elected to bat first in the inaugural test played here. Muralitharan in the process brought his overall tally to 598 wickets while playing in his 101st match.

However Sri Lanka made a disappointing start to their innings and were struggling a little bit having lost opener Michael van Dort and night watchman Malinga Bandara early. They finished the day on 25 for 2 with Upul Tharanga on 12 and Thilan Samaraweera on 7.

Even then skipper Mahela Jayawardena was quite pleased with the days performance as they dismissed the hosts for just over two hundred runs after they had been well placed at 157 for 3.

He said that the fast bowlers could not strike early but did a fantastic job later on with Muralitharan leading the way.

Jayawardena also said that by losing two early wickets the pressure is now back on them but is determined to bat the entire second day. He said that the wicket could take some turn during the fourth day and is looking forward to build up a lead of over 150 runs.

Muralitharan made his intentions quite clear from the beginning and struck in his very first over after Bangladesh had made a promising start. He broke a dangerous opening stand by trapping Asif Iqbal in front of the wicket in the 13th over of the innings.

Until then both Iqbal and his partner Javed Omar looked quite confident and were threatening to post a big partnership. Iqbal certainly justified his captain's decision to bat first by producing some good shots in front of the wicket and his 26 included five fours.

Muralitharan struck again in his seventh over and this time it was Javed Omar who paid the penalty for misreading the 'doosra'. Omar batted fluently until then before going into a shell and his knock of 35 was studded with five fours. Muralitharan then delivered a tremendous blow when he dismissed the home town hero Mushfiqur Rahim for just a couple of runs.

The promising Rahim was forced into the team to strengthen their middle order after a successful tour with the under 19 team at the recent ICC Youth World Cup staged in Colombo. Rahim laboured for 20 minutes and never looked like getting on top of the Sri Lankan bowling.

Before that paceman Lasith Malinga and leg spinner Malinga Bandara also picked up a wicket each to add more misery on Bangladesh during the second session. Lasith Malinga was rewarded for his great effort where he was willing to bowl really fast and also tested all the batsmen with a few good short deliveries.

He was successful with only a couple of wicket but he certainly deserved more than that on a perfect batting track. Leg spinner Malinga Bandara of course had the credit of picking up the prize wicket of Mohamed Ashraful the first test centurion.

The middle order batsman was deceived by a quicker delivery and was dismissed for 24 having struck three fours. This was soon after Habibul Bashar had completed his 22nd test fifty following some courageous batting from the Bangladesh captain. But when Bangladesh badly needed someone to battle out the final session Basher played a rather adventurous stroke which brought his own downfall.

His top score of 69 comprised of seven hits to the ropes and occupied the crease for just under three hours of time. Paceman Dilhara Fernando then came back during the final session to capture two quick wickets that made things even more difficult for Bangladesh.

BANGLADESH 1ST INNINGS 

J. Omar lbw b Muralitharan 		35 
N. Iqbal lbw b Muralitharan		26 
H. Bashar c Tharanga b Muralitharan 	69 
S. Nafees c Sangakkara b Malinga 	9 
M. Ashraful b Bandara 			24 
M. Rahim lbw b Muralitharan 		2 
K. Mashud c Sangakkara b Malinga 	12 
M. Rafique c Muralitharan b D. Fernando 32 
S. Hossain c Muralitharan b D. Fernando 6 
E. Haque jnr not out 			3 
S. Rasel c Bandara b Muralitharan 	0 
Extras (b-3 lb-5 nb-8) 			16 

TOTAL (all out, 76.5 overs) 		234 

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-52, 2-85, 3-106, 4-157, 5-172, 
	6-186, 7-208, 8-231, 9-233, 10-234. 
BOWLING: L. Malinga 20-1-73-2 (nb-5), F. Maharoof 4-0-22-0 (nb-1), 
	D. Fernando 9-4-24-2, M. Muralitharan 30.5-8-79-5, M. Bandara 13-1-28-1 (nb-1). 

SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS 

M. Vandort lbw b Rasel				0 
U. Tharanga not out 				12 
M. Bandara c N. Iqbal b Shahadat Hossain 	2 
T. Samaraweera not out 				7 
Extras (b-4) 					4 

TOTAL (for 2 wickets, 11 overs) 		25 

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4, 2-13. 
To bat: K. Sangakkara, M. Jayawardene, T. Dilshan, 
	F. Maharoof, M. Muralitharan, D. Fernando, L. Malinga. 
BOWLING: S.Rasel 5-4-2-1, S. Hossain 5-1-19-1, M. Rafique 1-1-0-0.