Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh 2017: 1st Test day 4, 5 Talking Points
Upul Tharanga posted a fine hundred before Dinesh Chandimal and Dilruwan Perera scored briskly to help Sri Lanka post a mammoth target for the Bangladeshis.
The declaration surprisingly came pretty late in the day from the Sri Lankan camp and the bowlers got very few overs to have a go at the Bangladesh batsmen. Soumya Sarkar was in ominous touch and compiled a 44 ball half-century to deny Sri Lanka any wickets.
The visitors were on 67/0 when bad light stopped play on day 4. The possibility of rain looms large and Bangladesh can save the Test if they apply themselves on the final day.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 494. Bangladesh 312. Sri Lanka 274/6 decl (Tharanga 115, Chandimal 50) Bangladesh 67/0 (Sarkar 53)
Here are the talking points from day 4 of the first Test at Galle.
#5 Karunaratne's form worries Lanka
Sri Lanka had just dropped Kaushal Silva from the Test team right before the start of the series. But Karunaratne would know that the axe could as well have been on him.
With Sri Lanka looking to set a target for Bangladesh on the 4th day, Karunaratne failed to score quickly enough, making 32 from 73 balls with just a solitary hit to the fence. When he did finally try to motor on, he top edged a pull from Taskin Ahmed to the deep fieldsman. With the threat of rain looming large all day, his sedate start is all the more baffling.
His scores in South Africa read 5, 43, 24, 6, 0 and 50, a trend that suggests that he was getting starts but failing to convert them. A double hundred against the England Lions last month seemed to have helped him retain a place in the side ahead of Kaushal Silva. But he would do well to not test the patience of the selectors.