Kumar, Mahela rule

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There were spells of sporadic rain but those could not stop a full day’s action, unlike the last two days, on the third day of the final Test as Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene put the Bangladesh bowling attack to sword at the Asgiriya Stadium here yesterday.

During their record third wicket stand of 311 runs, the highest for any wicket against Bangladesh, the left-right combination once again played big role as Sri Lanka ended the day exactly on 500 for 4, already a mammoth 369-run first innings lead.

Sri Lanka skipper Jayawardene was dismissed after scoring 165 runs but his deputy Sangakkara, who was unbeaten on 222, slammed his second consecutive double century. The wicketkeeper-batsman became only the sixth batsman to have scored back-to-back double hundreds.

The list includes the great Don Bradman, Walter Hammond, Vinod Kambli, South Africa captain Graeme Smith and Australia skipper Ricky Ponting.

But the morning was not as gloomy as the end reflected after left-arm paceman Syed Rasel removed both openers and things could have been better if his confident lbw appeal against Jayawardene, when on nought, was turned down by umpire Suresh Shastri. Television replays indicated that the marginal decision could have been given in favour of the bowler.

Rasel first trapped Upul Tharanga (12) in front of the stumps as the left-handed batsman padded up a straight delivery and then his brilliant incoming delivery flicked the bails of Michael Vandort (43) to reduce the hosts to 74-2 after resuming the day on 30-0.

But in the end, the left-arm seamer got rid of Jayawardene, but by then it was too late for his side as the right-hander along with Sangakkara punished the Bangladeshi bowlers throughout the day to entertain the small crowd.

Right-hander Jayawardene started the assault first with some fine strokeplay, making up for the two days lost to rain. That enabled his side to maintain a run-rate above four runs an over and he struck his second hundred of the series, 18th of his career so far, having just played 101 balls.

His brilliant knock of 165 that came from 210 deliveries with the help of 15 fours and three sixes came to an end when he was caught at mid-off by his Bangladesh counterpart Mohammed Ashraful off Rasel.

But the story remained that of Sangakkara, who was unbeaten exactly on 200 in the second Test, as the 29-year-old sketched his home ground during his six-hour classy knock that saw 28 eye-catching boundaries.

Spin or pace it didn’t matter for Jayawardene, but Sangakkara only opened up after the introduction of spin.

It was his sixth double hundred in 67 appearance, behind only Bradman (12), Brian Lara (9) and Hammond (7).

There was more misery for Bangladesh as fast bowler Shahadat Hossain got an official warning from the umpires for his grunting after Jayawardene once again complained against the paceman.

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