It was the poor body language of the hosts that made the task easier for Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene who smashed his seventh double hundred at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday. The former Sri Lankan captain staged tremendous class and temperament during his 416-minute stay at the crease as he did not show any signs of fatigue and just concentrated more on the game.
“We just needed to make sure that we don’t make mistakes and bat through those periods and once we got through those initial periods, yeah it looked like they gave up a bit, so it became a bit easier, but it wasn’t that easy,” said Mahela after the third day of their first Test against Bangladesh yesterday.
Along with the big score Mahela landed another milestone as the 36-year old crossed Australian legend Allan Border’s 11174 runs in Tests. He said he was not aware of the feat and only looked to put up a decent score at the end of the day. “So along that way if I had passed some milestones I am pretty pleased with that. We don’t set ourselves for that but along the way if you achieve something those things give tremendous feeling,” he added.
Mahela equalled Kumar Sangakkara’s 33 centuries with his fifth ton against Bangladesh and said that it’s a healthy competition between them before humbly adding that Sangakkara will overtake him in the next Test.
The Bangladeshi bowlers failed to create any threat for the visitors and looked ordinary in the field which Sri Lanka capitalised on.
“We tried to take control of situation and obviously they let us get away. I think going forward they need to probably hang in there a bit more, fight it out and see whether they can create more opportunities,” said Mahela.
Bangladesh vice-captain and opener Tamim Iqbal’s careless shot selection to get himself dismissed late in the day was a big wicket for the visitors and Mahela said, “Tamim is an aggressive player obviously that’s the way he goes about it. We knew we needed to create some opportunities, build a bit of pressure. Yeah we are lucky that we got that wicket at the end. That was the whole point of giving them those few overs to bowl at and Tamim was a huge wicket.”
Sri Lanka at the moment are in a great position to win the match as Bangladesh still trail them by 463 runs with two days remaining. No matter how easy the situation looks like Mahela said, “Cricket is a funny game and I have played enough games to realise that it doesn’t happen that easily. We just need to be patient and create pressure and grab hold of those opportunities. We have two days. So I hope that’s enough time. We will wait and see.”