BAN vs SL Scorecard, 1st Test, Day 1 Highlights: Kamindu Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva shine in Sri Lanka's strong comeback

After the enthralling T20I and the ODI series, Bangladesh National Cricket Team and Sri Lanka National Cricket Team are now up against each other in the two-match Test series. The first game of the series commenced on Friday (22nd March).

Sri Lanka bossed Day 1 of the game as they displayed a decent performance with bat and ball. The match is underway at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet. They would be now hoping to cash on the start and dominate the proceedings on Day 2 as well.

BAN vs SL 1st Test, Day 1 – Sri Lanka innings: Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis slam ton to bail the team out of trouble

Sri Lanka lost the toss and was asked to bat first. They didn’t have a great start as they came under a lot of pressure. Khaled Ahmed took Bangladesh off the flier as he sent Nishan Madushanka (2), Dimuth Karunaratne (17), and Kusal Mendis (16) packing inside the first hour of the play.

Things got even worse for Sri Lanka when Angelo Mathews (5) got run out and Dinesh Chandimal (9) perished too. The visitors were tumbling at 57/5 and it seemed that they would get bundled out under 100 runs. But it was then that Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis joined hands together.

The duo put Bangladesh under immense pressure and played magnificently well. The duo added 202 runs together and made the opposition bowlers look clueless. They first made sure that they bail the team out of trouble and once they got their eye in, they looked threatening.

While Dhananjaya de Silva slammed 102 runs off 131 balls, Kamindu Mendis played a knock of 102 runs off 127 balls. Their valiant effort with the bat made sure that Sri Lanka went past 250 runs on the board. After they got out, Bangladesh made a slight comeback with the ball in the game.

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They removed the tail quickly and ended Bangladesh’s innings with 280 runs inside 68 overs. Khaled Ahmed and Nahid Rana picked three wickets each. Apart from them, Shoriful Islam and Taijul Islam bagged one scalp each as Bangladesh folded the Sri Lanka innings under 300 runs.

BAN vs SL 1st Test, Day 1 – Bangladesh innings: Vishwa Fernando takes Sri Lanka off flier with a ball

It was expected that Bangladesh would come up with a better performance with the bat in their first innings and go wicketless at stumps on Day 1. But that wasn’t the case as it was a torrid display of batting from their end in the last session of the first day in Sylhet.

Vishwa Fernando first trapped Zakir Hasan in lbw for 9 runs and made sure that he drew the first blood for his team with a new ball. If this was not enough, he then removed Bangladesh National Cricket Team skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto for 5 runs to put the hosts under pressure.

Kasun Rajitha also made sure that he did damage from the other end as he removed Mominul Haque for 5 runs to leave Bangladesh tottering at 31/3. Mahmudul Hasan Joy (9*) and Taijul Islam were at the crease. At stumps on Day 1, the hosts were 32/3 and were 248 runs behind Sri Lanka.

BAN vs SL 1st Test, Day 1 – Brief Scores

Sri Lanka: 280-10 (Kamindu Mendis 102; Khaled Ahmed 3/72)

Bangladesh: 32-3 (Mahmud Hasan Joy 9*; Vishwa Fernando 2/9)

BAN vs SL 1st Test, Day 1 – Full Scorecard