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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Inspired batting by Mohammad Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed, two of Bangladesh's reliable batsmen who made a half-century apiece helped salvage a draw against a Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI in the 3-day practice match played at the Colombo Colts grounds on Friday.

It was a result, which would have done much to bolster Bangladesh's confidence ahead of the two-Test series against Sri Lanka starting Monday week at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Dismissed for a disappointing 195 in the first innings, Bangladesh scored 273 for six wickets in their second innings before the match was called off after two mandatory overs. The Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI made 412 in their first innings.

However at one stage of the morning session a draw looked the least likely result when Bangladesh slumped from their overnight total of 31-1 to 92-4. But Ashraful and Ahmed took up the challenge and on a pitch, which had turned out to be a perfect batting strip helped restore Bangladesh's pride.

The pair came together 14 minutes before the lunch break and were not parted until 21 minutes before tea when Ashraful in sight of a deserving century lost his cool and was stumped attempting to hit part time bowler Kandamby over the top. The 21-year-old right-hander showed great reserves of concentration to bat for two minutes under three hours for a well-compiled 87 off 150 balls. He hit a six and 11 fours, one of with which he reached his half-century off 91 balls.

BANGLADESH - 1ST INNINGS 195
SRI LANKA CRICKET DEVELOPMENT XI
- 1ST INNINGS 412

BANGLADESH - 2ND INNINGS
(overnight 31-1)

 Javed Omar b Lakshitha				 14
Nafees Iqbal lbw b Wijekoon			  5
Manjural Islam c Mendis b Waruna		 22
Shariar Nafees lbw b Wijekoon			  7
Mohammed Ashraful st De Silva b Kandamby	 87
Aftab Ahmed c Mendis b Rupasinghe		 67
Thushar Imran not out				 23	
Khaled Mashud not out				 14
Extras (B-5, LB-2, NB-18, W-9)			 34  
TOTAL (6 wkts at stumps, 87 overs)		273 

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-27, 2-37, 3-47, 4-92, 5-215, 6-244. 
BOWLING: Lakshitha 16-3-60-1 (W-6, NB-3), 
         Waruna 20-1-76-1 (NB-12),
         Wijekoon 15-4-24-2 (W-1), 
         Mendis 5-2-8-0 (W-1), 
         Rupasinghe 16-2-61-1 (W-1, NB-1), 
         Kandamby 5-0-17-1 (NB-1), 
         Samaraweera 7-3-7-0 (NB-1), 
         Gajanayake 3-0-13-0.
NOTE: (12 play, 11 bat).

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