Galle [Sri Lanka]: Kusal Mendis scored a superb century to put Sri Lanka in course of a mammoth first inning total on Day One of the opening Test of the two-match series against Bangladesh at the Galle Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.
At Stumps on first day, Sri Lanka reached 321 for four having Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella at 166 and 14 respectively.
Having won the toss, the start was not as fruitful for the hosts as they lost the openers in the first session with only 60 runs on the board.
The visitors also managed to dismiss Dimuth Karunaratne (30) and Dinesh Chandimal (five) to reduce Sri Lanka to 92 for three.
However, Mendis, who came to bat at number three, shared a 196-run stand with Asela Gunaratne (85) for the fourth wicket and made sure the Bangladeshi bowlers didn’t come on top.
The right-handed batsman reached three figures with a straight four off Soumya Sarkar. Playing only in his second Test match, the 22-year-old has so far hit 18 fours and two sixes in his 242-ball knock.
For Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Subashis Roy and Mehedi Hasan all picked a wicket each.
Liton Das was keeping wicket for Bangladesh after captain Mushfiqur Rahim, wanting to concentrate on his batting, handed him the gloves before the start of the Test series. (ANI)