Kumar Sangakkara made a career-best 319 runs to join the 11 000-run club in Test cricket on the way to put visitors Sri Lanka on top in the second Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong on Wednesday.
The classy left-hander was the last batsman to be dismissed after a marathon 482-ball knock which included as many as 32 boundaries and eight sixes as the visitors piled on 587 runs before being all out at the stroke of tea on second day.
In reply, Bangladesh made 86 for loss of one wicket at stumps after losing opener Tamim Iqbal for a duck in the very first over of their innings.
Shamsur Rahman (45) and Imrul Kayes (36) remain unbeaten at close with some aide from Sri Lanka’s sloppy fielding. The hosts still trail Sri Lanka by 501 runs. However, both Bangladeshi batsmen got one life each as Sri Lanka’s fielders dropped two catches.
Sangakkara, who was batting on 286 with number 11 Nuwan Pradeep, hit left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan for a four and two sixes off successive deliveries to reach his maiden triple hundred in spectacular fashion. He became the second batsman in Test cricket to reach a triple hundred with a six. He in the process also went past his previous highest score of 287 against South Africa at SSC in Colombo.
Sangakkara, 36, is fastest to reach the 11000 Test-run club, as he wnet past West Indies legend Brian Lara‘s record by five innings.
Lower-middle order players like Kithuruwan Vithanage (35) and Ajantha Mendis (47) provided decent support to former captain of Sri Lanka, Sangakkara, and added 90 and 100 for the sixth and eighth wickets respectively.
For Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al-Hasan completed his 11th five-wicket haul in Test cricket and was the lone saving grace in what otherwise was an ordinary Bangladesh attack. Bangladesh will now require some sort of a miracle to win the Test and square the two-match series after going 1-0 down courtesy a loss in the first match in Dhaka by an innings and 248 runs.
