'Hard to tell who is in the driving seat' - SL and Bangladesh slow burn it in Galle

Bangladesh have made 484 for 9 in Galle so far, which is often a winning first-innings score at this venue.

But so batting-friendly does this surface appear so far, that even Bangladesh's assistant coach is willing to claim a definitive advantage. "It's hard to tell who is in the driving seat - it depends on who is winning each session," said Mohammad Salahuddin, Bangladesh's assistant coach. Sri Lanka bowling allrounder Milan Rathnayake had similar things to say. "It's not easy [to judge which team is ahead]. Both teams did really well today."

Both Rathnayake and Salahuddin also agree that this is an unusually batting-friendly Galle track.

"It still looks like a batting-friendly pitch. I hope the wicket can break in the next couple of days," Salahuddin said.

"The pitch is definitely one that favours batters," Rathnayake said. "Even though it's the second day, it's just as good for batting. I don't think it's changed since yesterday."

Rathnayake thinks Sri Lanka clawed their way back into the contest in the final session of a rain-interrupted second day. Bangladesh began that final session on 423 for 4, but finished the day on 484 for 9, having lost 5 wickets for 26 runs towards the end of the day.

Rathnayake insists that his wickets during that late period, with the old ball, came from conventional swing, rather than reverse swing. And Salahuddin seemed to agree.

"I will take the positive from Sri Lanka's bowling - they maintained the ball very well in that last session, unlike the previous five sessions," Salahuddin said. "If that's so, we can use this exact method in our bowling."

Rathnayake, meanwhile, chose to focus on the period of day two in which Sri Lanka made their greatest gains- the last half of the final session. Early in the day, they had missed at least three chances - a catch that went down at short midwicket, plus two run-out opportunities.

"We did miss a few chances and it did have an effect," Rathnayake said. "But at the end of the day our bowlers did make a recovery. Though their batters did well we could have cut down their runs by holding our chances. But I think the bowlers made some ground at the end of the day."