A dull draw under scorching sun

The first Test of the two-match series between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka ended in a draw at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Thursday.

Captains of both teams agreed to a draw an hour after the tea break when Sri Lanka were 260-6 in 90.1 overs, extending their lead to 192 runs. With just an hour’s play left, any positive outcome for either team was almost impossible.

Therefore, Mominul Haque and Dinesh Chandimal agreed on a draw and ended the suffering of the cricketers who had been playing cricket in such extreme conditions. The average temperature on the ground was close to 40 degrees Celsius with high humidity, making it difficult to play cricket for five days.

Tamim Iqbal suffered a cramp, umpire Richard Kettleborough fell sick and was replaced by TV umpire Joel Wilson during the match, and almost all the Sri Lankan players or coaches, who came to the press conference, mentioned the heat.

Bangladesh captain, Mominul, feels there is no scope of complaining about the conditions on the international stage.

“I don’t think the performance dropped due to the extreme heat as you saw that their players scored centuries and our players also scored centuries. Our bowlers bowled well. You can’t control the conditions,” he said in the press conference.

Dhananjaya De Silva also said that the heat was unbearable, though they trained under similar situations in Sri Lanka.

“It was very hot, but in Sri Lanka, it’s almost similar weather now, and we trained at such conditions before coming over here,” said the vice-captain.

The heat was only in the atmosphere as the match predictably ended in a draw in Chattogram. The flat batting surface hardly offers any help for the bowlers. Therefore, only 26 wickets fell in 413 overs.

Practically, the second session of the fourth day guided the game towards a stalemate, which Mominul also agreed to.

“This is such a tricky wicket that if you want to charge, you will risk losing wickets. Yesterday (Wednesday), we lost Liton (Das) very early after lunch and also lost Tamim (Iqbal). If we could accelerate a bit more, we might have added a few more runs. But as we lost a couple of quick wickets, that plan did not work,” the Test captain said after the match.

For the first time, Bangladesh avoided defeat in a World Test Championship match at home, and Mominul is satisfied with what he got.

“Traditionally, Tests at Chittagong end in a draw. Our batsmen and bowlers have done well. The batsmen were back into runs which is a very important thing, especially after the South Africa tour. Hope they will carry the momentum,” said Mominul.

Dhananjaya said they are planning to bounce back and seal the series in Dhaka with a simple plan.

“The wicket in Dhaka will be very spin-friendly. If we can score 275-300 runs and bowl them out for 150 runs in an innings, we will have a chance. I think, in Dhaka, we will have only one pacer and three spinners in the team,” he said after the match.

After a dull draw in Chattogram, now it will be winner takes all in Dhaka. Both the teams earned four points from the drawn Test, and the winner in Dhaka will get 12 more points. If Bangladesh win, they will reduce the gap with West Indies in the World Test Championship points table. But if Sri Lanka win, they will move to the third position overtaking Pakistan and India.