by Atif Azam
Chris Silverwood, Sri Lanka’s head coach, conceded that they were disappointed for not having been able to push Bangladesh and capitalise on the position they were in on the opening day of the second Test in Mirpur on Monday (May 23). Sri Lanka had reduced Bangladesh to 24 for 5 inside seven overs. However, Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das counterattacked and saved Bangladesh the blushes through some superlative batting. Mushfiqur was unbeaten on 115, while Liton was not out on 135 as they added a record 253 runs for the sixth wicket to end the day in a relatively comfortable position.
“Obviously it is disappointing to not push on from the start we got,” said Silverwood. “I thought we exploited the early movement fantastically well. The two seam bowlers were exceptional again, in their discipline, the way they asked the batter the questions. Unfortunately, we didn’t back it up after that. From there on, we gave away a lot of scoring opportunities. When we did force an error, we didn’t take that catch. It would have made a huge difference. It proved very costly to us.
“I think it is a good wicket to bat on. There was some movement in the first hour. There’s a little bit of spin. I don’t think we bowled particularly well after that start. We have to be honest with that. We (spinners) could have bowled a lot better but it is something we will talk about in the dressing room. I think we need to bowl much better line and lengths. We gave too many balls away to hit. That’s something we have to work hard on to rectify. There’s no point hiding from it.”
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