It was an emotional moment when Sri Lanka Cricket bid goodbye to Angelo Mathews playing in his 119th test and being the third highest scorer in this format. It was also note worthy that Sri Lanka Cricket gave the public an opportunity to watch their hero for the last time in whites. Free of charge.
The day on the field for Sri Lanka was not pleasant after Bangladesh won a crucial toss and elected to bat on a placid cement of a pitch.
The visitors were in for a shell shock, losing 3 top order batters for 45 runs , importantly Monimul Haq for 29 , being the second victim of test debutant Tharindu Ratnayaka
It was a pain taking walk for Mushfiqur Rahim to join his skipper Najmul Shanto.
38 year old Mushfiqur has had 13 failures in his last outings for the tigers. His best score prior to this test was 40 against Zimbabwe.
The former Bangladesh Captain has always enjoyed batting against Sri Lanka. He has 3 centuries against the Island nation, including one in Galle.
The ambience and the Galle stadium are a home away from home for the small built batting prodigy of Bangladesh.
He first redeemed Bangladesh from further embarrassment by stiching an unbroken partnership of 45 runs with Najmul Shanto and took lunch on 90 for 3 wickets.
Najmul Shanto and Mushfiqur Rahim displayed exquisite stroke play and timing against the tiring Sri Lankan spinners, both Prabath Jayasuriya cum Ratnayaka , who ended the day with the former wicketless for 80 runs in 29 overs and the latter 2 for 124 in another marathon spell of 32 overs.
Sri Lanka went wicketless after the midway of the first session as Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Shanto stiched an unbroken partnership of 247 runs for the fourth wicket , and Bangladesh end day one on 292 for 3 wickets at stumps.
Najmul Shanto unbeaten on 136 , Mushfiqur Rahim unbeaten on 106, and Bangladesh look set to make 450 runs tomorrow and bat Sri lanka out of the game.
Sri Lanka missed the services of Lahiru Kumara in the seam cordon. He was out with a hamstring injury.
With all due respect to Asitha Fernando and Milan Ratnayaka, they lacked venom and were picked off by both Mushfiqur and Shanto.
Lahiru can bowl at wicket, taking deliveries at 140 plus, and this was evident today.