Mammoth win for Sri Lanka A

Sri Lanka 547 for 6 dec and 132 for 4 dec beat Bangladesh A 163 and 233 (Imran 54, de Silva 4-69)
Scorecard

Chasing a mammoth target of 517 Bangladesh A collapsed to 233 handing Sri Lanka A a 283-run victory on the final day of their first test at the Colts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo.

Bangladesh A were in trouble from the start of day four as captain Tushar Imran and Nazmul Hossain came out to bat with the score at 110 for 3. They added 50 runs before Hossain was caught for 11 off Malinda Warnapura who had earlier set up Sri Lanka's victory with a maiden double-century in their declared first-innings score of 547.

With another 10 runs on the board Imran, the top-scorer of the innings at 54, was run out. Sujeewa de Silva, a left-arm medium-fast bowler, dismissed the next two batsmen for a run. Khaled Mashud, the former Bangladesh wicketkeeper, and Mahmudullah then put up an 82-ball resistance before de Silva dismissed Mahmudullah for 38. Mashud remained not out on 11 as Sri Lanka A wrapped up the match with nearly two sessions to spare. de Silva ended with a match haul of 7 for 107.

Chandika Hathurusinghe, the Sri Lanka A coach, said that the target had been to give maximum exposure to the players and allow them to play under different conditions. "We did not enforce the follow-on although we had a big first innings lead because we thought we should give the openers another chance to prove themselves," Hathurusinghe told Daily Star, a Colombo-based newspaper. Sri Lanka lead the two-match series 1-0 with the second test starting on March 25 in Colombo.