da betobet： There are old school adherents who believe that education is best achievedwith sharp cane and plenty of punishment, but one fears that the severebeating being handed out to Bangladesh in this Asian Test Championship matchcould seriously undermine
Charlie Austin07-Sep-2001There are old school adherents who believe that education is best achievedwith sharp cane and plenty of punishment, but one fears that the severebeating being handed out to Bangladesh in this Asian Test Championship matchcould seriously undermine the long-term confidence of their aspiringplayers.Yesterday they faced the humiliation of being bundled out for 90 and todaythey suffered terribly under a scorching sun as Sri Lanka’s batsmen went onan embarrassing run spree, before Muralitharan quickly plucked out the rumpof their top order in the evening.The home team, who started the second day on 246-1, clobbered anastonishing 190 runs in the morning session and a relatively sedate 119after lunch before declaring on 555 for five.Bangladesh, facing a mountainous first innings deficit of 465 with more thanthree days remaining in the match, then lost four wickets before the closeto finish on 100 for four, still 365 runs in arrears. At least they had thesatisfaction of surpassing their lowly first innings effort.The scorecard says that they claimed five wickets, but the truth is theyonly took three because the Sri Lankan captain made the unprecedented decisionto retire two batsmen `out’ when he felt that they had gorged themselvesenough. Jayasuriya is a strict Buddhist so he may have reasoned thatover-indulgence was inadvisable.Batsmen have retired `out’ in first-class cricket on a smattering ofoccasions, usually in early-season games on England’s university fields, butnot in the 1,560 Test matches that have preceded this game.In fairness to Jayasuriya the decision was entirely sensible in the case ofMarvan Atapattu, as he had already scored his fifth double hundred and theretirement gave new-boy Michael Vandort his first taste of internationalcricket.Atapattu, who had started the day on 99, scored 201 off 259 balls, to take hisplace in a select band of cricketers. Only Australian Donald Bradman (12),England’s Walter Hammond (seven) and Pakistan’s Javed Miandad (six) havescored more than four double-centuries in Tests.There was no respite after Atapattu returned to the pavilion as the in-formMahela Jayawardene scorched his way to an utterly dismissive 150 off just115 balls, which included 26 fours and one lofted straight six.Bangladesh’s bowlers paid heavily for their inability to maintain aconsistent line and length. Each over was littered with a boundary ball andJayawardene needed no second invitation to unveil his complete repertoire ofstrokes.It was Jayawardene’s third consecutive Test century, having scored 104against India in the Second Test at Kandy and 139 in the Third Test atColombo in his last two matches.It looked like he was destined to smash Ian Botham’s 220-ball record for thefastest double ton in Test cricket, but Jayasuriya pulled him back into thedressing room to let Hashan Tillakaratne have a quick run in the middle before atea-time declaration after Vandort was caught on the long off boundary for36.Earlier in the day, Kumar Sangakkara, 49 overnight, had reached his fifthTest half-century, but then missed out on the run feast as he cut loosely ata short ball from medium pacer Hasibul Hossain and was caught at backwardpoint for 54.Bangladesh opener Javed Omar started with a flurry of boundaries andJayasuriya waited just eight overs before he reintroduced off spinnerMuttiah Muralitharan. Once again he conjured up the wickets for Sri Lanka.Mehrab was the first to be dismissed as he was deceived by Muralitharan’sarm ball and was trapped leg before wicket for four to end a defiant 31-runopening partnership.Omar continued to bat positively, but two balls after he charged down thewicket to loft the off spinner over the top Muralitharan trapped him legbefore wicket for 40.Next over off-spinning all rounder Thilan Samaraweera trapped Al Shahriarleg before wicket for seven with his first delivery to leave the tourists on54 for three.Habibul Bashar and Aminul Islam then added 27 runs for the fourth wicketbefore Muralitharan grabbed the wicket of Habibul Bashar, caught by Jayawardene for 19, to leave Bangladesh in the bleakest of positions.