Mathew’s majestic 199 suffers anti-climax

For the second-straight day, Angelo Mathew’s headlined the proceedings for his painstaking knock of 199, falling only two-runs shy of surpassing his career-best knock of 200 at the end of day-02 of the opening test against Bangladesh at Chattogram, today.

Mathews in his marathon stay, took his own cool time, though he had the threat of running out of partners. However, when he began inching closer to the landmark, he got good backing from tail-ender, Vishwa Fernando, remaining not out at the end of their innings.

As Mathews and team resumed on their overnight score of 258, naturally, the cynosure of all eyes was on the centurion. Given this track produces run-fest, the ex-skipper had the golden opportunity to register only his second double-ton, but squandered gifting his wicket to Nayeem Hasan, who finished with a six for 105.

It was a cruel end to a grueling 397-ball stay, 397 coincidentally being the team’s total.

The right-hander turning 35 in early-June, not only missed that elusive two-hundred, but fell agonizingly short of equaling his personal-best.

Shakib Al Hasan, a seasoned campaigner for his side, making a speedy recovery from Covid-19 and making a surprise inclusion, was on a hat-trick momentarily. Dismissing fellow spinners from his opponents’ camp (Ramesh Mendis and Lasith Embuldeniya), the rare three-in-three was thwarted.  

Bangladesh starting their innings was off to a good start at 76 for no loss at stumps.

Chief scores:

Sri Lanka: 397 all out (153) (Angelo Mathews 199, Dinesh Chandimal 66, Nayeem Hasan 6/105, Shakib Al Hasan 3/60)

Bangladesh: 76 for no loss (19) (Tamim Iqbal 35 n.o., Mahmudul Hasan Joy 31 n.o.,)