Tigers' tour match drawn as Chandimal hits 190

Explosive batting from centurion Dinesh Chandimal and number nine batsman Chamika Karunaratne elevated Sri Lanka Board President's XI to 403 for seven as Bangladesh's tour-opening two-day warm-up ended in a draw on the second day at the De Zoysa Stadium in Moratuwa today.

Dinesh Chandimal, the only player in the home side who is part of the Sri Lanka squad that will take on Bangladesh in the firs Test next Tuesday, hit an unbeaten 190 off 254 balls with 21 fours and seven sixes. 

Chandimal exploded after the tea break, at which point he was on a 154-ball 62 and his side 161 for four after incisive bowling from Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman in the first two sessions. 

After the break Soumya Sarkar chipped in with the wicket of Rumesh Buddika, ending a 53-run fifth-wicket stand. But after that the home side pressed the accelerator with a series of three 50-plus partnerships. Leo Francisco featured in a 56-run sixth-wicket stand in 10.5 overs before Mustafizur Rahman bowled him, Hasaranga de Silva helped put on 72 for the seventh wicket in 10 overs before Mehedi Hasan Miraz had him stumped before an unbeaten eighth-wicket partnership of 112 in only 12 overs during which Karunaratne scored a 42-ball 50.

The common feature in all these stands was Chandimal, who scored 128 runs in 100 balls in the third session, which included an over from Shakib Al Hasan that the batsman plundered for three sixes and a four.

Taskin was the most successful bowler with three for 41, while Mustafizur finished with two for 28 in his first longer-version game with the national side since August 2015. 

Earlier, having taken two wickets before lunch, which the home side reached on 74 for three, Taskin ended the 81-run fourth-wicket partnetship between Dinesh Chandimal and Roshen Silva when he had the latter caught behind by wicketkeeper Liton Das. That wicket with the score on 110 was Bangladesh's only success of the session as Chandimal moved to a composed 62 off 154 balls with the help of eigh boundaries.  

In the morning session, Taskin Ahmed gave his side two early breakthroughs as he removed Avishka Fernando and Irosh Samarasooriya inside four overs. Avishka was bowled for 3 while Irosh was caught after a three-ball duck. Taskin captured the two wickets for 18 runs in five overs.

Mustafizur Rahman took the third wicket to fall for the hosts when he caught and bowled Ron Chandraguptha for 20 in the 12th over with 29 runs on the board. Dinesh Chandimal was batting on 23 and Roshen Silva on 24 when the players left the field for lunch.

Yesterday, despite a late storm and cloudy conditions, Bangladesh got the chance to bat 90 overs and amassed 391 for seven at stumps thanks to opener Tamim Iqbal, who hit a fine century, and young wicket-keeper batsman Liton Das who scored an unbeaten half-century.