The pair put on an unbeaten 322 stand with Karunaratne reaching his maiden double-ton on day four
Mohammad Isam24-Apr-2021Dimuth Karunaratne’s maiden double-century and an unbeaten 154 by Dhananjaya de Silva enabled Sri Lanka to come closer to Bangladesh first-innings tally of 541 for 7. The wicketless day finished 53 minutes before the scheduled end, hastened by the second of two bad light-induced stoppages, the first one having lasted 33 minutes. During the 76 overs completed in the fourth day, Karunaratne and de Silva batted gleefully against a bowling attack that could do little on a regressive pitch.Sri Lankan captain Karunaratne spent in the field all of the 24 hours of play that have been possible across the first four days. He fielded for 13 hours of those and then opened the batting for Sri Lanka, so far lasting 11 hours and three minutes.Karunaratne reached his maiden double-hundred after the first stoppage, edging Taskin Ahmed for a four, his feat also the first double-century in Pallekele and the first double-hundred by a Sri Lankan batter at home in seven years. His previous highest score was 196 against Pakistan in Dubai in 2017. Throughout his innings, he pierced the covers at will, but got 12 of his 25 fours through the on-side. He also ran well between the wickets, picking up plenty of twos and threes in humid conditions.By the end of the fourth day, Karunaratne and de Silva had added 322 runs, the highest for the fourth wicket in Sri Lanka, beating the 258 between Michael Hussey and Shaun Marsh from 2011. They added 283 runs at 3.72 per over, with de Silva being the aggressor with his 20 fours in his 278-ball stay.He punished anything pitched wide outside the off stump, carting five fours through point, and plundered plenty of runs by just gliding the ball behind the slips or past fine-leg. de Silva also brought out the straight hits twice.Karunaratne and de Silva added 102 in 31 overs in the first session, during which Karunaratne reached 100 runs off 247 balls. He took a bit of time in the nineties, spending 30 balls, but once he had reached the three-figure mark, he took on the Bangladesh bowlers more comfortably.It allowed de Silva to bat more attackingly, as he built a relatively more proactive innings around Karunaratne’s steadiness. The pair hardly gave any chances although Liton Das failed to grab a thick edge off Karunaratne, when he was on 166, off Taijul Islam. Bangladesh didn’t have any further chances on the day. They didn’t bowl well in pairs, nor could any one bowler come up with a fine spell by himself. Captain Mominul Haque relied mostly on his spinners, who couldn’t replicate the chances they created on the third day.Bangladesh’s bowlers found it hard in the first session, but they disintegrated mostly in the 10 overs after the lunch break. Karunaratne and de Silva smashed 61 runs in that period, picking up eight fours.
