There was a lot of doubt at the start of the day about how Bangladesh would bat and how long they would give themselves to bowl Sri Lanka out. As it turned out, they were essentially powerless to make the decision because lunch was called ten minutes sooner than planned. It started to rain a little more than an hour into the morning session.
We will hopefully witness 94 overs of play during the day because the break was too short to allow for any over loss. However, with Bangladesh’s advantage at 247. Which is probably enough for a sporting declaration, the most likely outcome currently appears to be a draw.
When the rain started, Mushfiqur Rahim was running out after a stand of 109 with Najmul Hossain Shanto, who was undefeated at 89. To reach his fifty, Mushfiqur was looking for a tight single. But he was just a hair short of the crease after a direct hit from mid-on.
Shanto
Only one additional stop happened during this Test. On the second afternoon, despite the fact that rain was a constant threat. However, given the constant risk of rain. It was odd that neither Shanto nor Mushfiqur showed any hurry in the hour and a little play.
Both sides had shown an intention to fight for a result the previous afternoon. But Bangladesh were happy to grind around at a session run rate of just 3.15. Clearly ready to bat through lunch or maybe beyond.
Traditional wisdom would have suggested that it would take at least two sessions to bowl Sri Lanka out. Since Bangladesh certainly wanted a lead of at least 300 likely close to 350 a run rate of five or more seemed to be the norm. However, since Sri Lanka was also content to set defensive fields, Bangladesh. Who had recently experienced a very poor run rate in Test matches. Had no intention of sacrificing important World Test Championship points.
When Shanto smoked his first delivery faced today and Mushfiqur hammered one down the ground off the fifth ball of the morning. There was first some optimism that Bangladesh might advance the match. Both batters were happy to dead-bat the spinners. But generally dot balls won.
The only delivery that went wrong for the Sri Lankan spinners was the occasional one. They were unable to obtain the same purchase off the ground that Nayeem Hasan had so brilliantly used on the fourth afternoon.
Overall, it looks like a day that started out with the possibility of a sprint finish will end in an easy draw.
