CHITTAGONG   -  Prabath Jayasuriya, Lahiru Ku­mara and Kamindu Mendis took two wickets each to dis­mantle Bangladesh’s batting lineup and propelled Sri Lanka closer to clean sweep the ongo­ing two-match Test series. 

At the stumps on Day 4 of the ongoing second Test, hosts Bangladesh were 268-7, need­ing a further 243 runs to square off the series. Lower middle-or­der batter Mehidy Hasan Miraz retaliated with an unbeaten 44 and forced the match into the fifth day while Taijul Islam ac­companied him with a gutsy 10. 

Mominul Haque was the only other batter to put up a fight with a brisk half-century. He made 50 off 56 balls before fall­ing victim to Jayasuriya in the last over of the second session. His dismissal was followed by a crucial 61-run partnership for the fifth wicket between returning veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and Litton Das. 

Off-spinner Mendis provided Sri Lanka with a much-needed breakthrough as Nishan Madu­shka took a sharp reflex catch at the silly point to dismiss Shakib on 36. Das followed in the footsteps of Shakib three overs later as the bottom edge while playing a pull shot drew curtains on his 38-run knock. 

Kamindu Mendis broke an­other important partnership brewing between Mehidy and Shahadat Hossain by trap­ping the latter leg before on 15. Opening batter Mahmudul Hasan (24), fellow opener Za­kir Hasan (19), and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (20) all perished cheaply. 

Resuming at an overnight sec­ond innings score of 102-6, Sri Lanka batted just over an hour to add 55 runs to their tally be­fore declaring at 157-7. Angelo Mathews top-scored for Sri Lan­ka with 56 runs before he was bowled by his Bangladesh coun­terpart Shakib after making his 41st Test fifty. When the decla­ration came, Jayasuriya was un­beaten on 28 along with Vishwa Fernando, who had scored eight not out. Debutant pacer Hasan Mahmud led the bowling attack for Bangladesh in the second innings with brilliant figures of 4/65. Sri Lanka, who never suc­cumbed to a Test series defeat against Bangladesh, humbled the hosts by 328 runs in the first Test at Sylhet.

SCORES IN BRIEF
BANGLADESH 178 and 268-
7 (Mominul 50, Mehidy 44*,
Kamindu 2-22, Kumara 2-41)
trail Sri Lanka 531 and 157-7d
(Mathews 56, Mahmud 4-65,
Khaled 2-34) by 242 runs.