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Chris Dhambarage reporting from Bangladesh

BOGRA, Bangladesh, Saturday

Sri Lanka completed another clean sweep and cruised to their seventh straight win against Bangladesh winning the second and final test match by ten wickets with a day to spare at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra here Saturday.

Even then their victory in this inaugural test match played at this venue was a doubtful one at one stage as the bad weather was threatening to spoil their chances of an early finish. A heavy downpour with thunder storms early in the morning almost shattered their hopes as they kept on looking at the skies and prayed before the game eventually got under way after a delay of nearly seven hours.

The Lankans would have been regretting at one stage for not completing the game on the third day when they batted cautiously while chasing a modest target of 120 runs. The weather did clear at around 11.00 a.m and the ground staff did not hesitate to remove the covers immediately. But the unpredictable weather again caused more concern to the Sri Lankan camp as another heavy shower swept aside the Shaheed Chandu Stadium for nearly one hour.

And when the game finally got under way Sri Lanka needed just eight overs to complete their task reaching 120 for no loss in 28 overs. The openers Michael van Dort and Upul Tharanga after a slow start opened out and decided to finish off the game without being separated. Tharanga in fact completed a memorable test and was unbeaten on 71 following his trail-blazing knock of 165 in the first innings. The stylish left-hander collected his runs from 87 deliveries hoisting one six and stroking eight boundaries.

Michael van Dort of course made some amends for his first innings duck and also gained some confidence scoring an unbeaten 40 from 82 ball with the help four fours. Bangladesh certainly did make an attempt to push the Sri Lanka pair with some accurate bowling from the two spinners Mohamed Rafique and Enamul Haque.

The pair did beat the bat on a couple of occasions but were not fortunate to pick up a wicket due to some fielding. They also did not want to risk their two main fast bowlers Shahadat Hossain and Syed Rasel as they are set to commence a four match one-day series against Kenya from Friday at this same venue.

Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena said that he is quite pleased with the teams overall performance in the series which they won two nil after taking the first test by eight wickets at the Divisional Stadium in Chittagong. This was also a good morale booster to the squad ahead of a gruelling one day and test home series against Pakistan which begins on Friday.

The series was also a memorable one for the champion off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who captured his one thousand international wicket playing in his 100th Test match also picked up his 600th test wicket. In addition he became the only bowler to claim a minimum of fifty wickets against all Test playing countries.

BANGLADESH - 1ST INNINGS 234
SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS 316
BANGLADESH - 2ND INNINGS 201
SRI LANKA - 2ND INNINGS
(overnight 77-0)

M. Vandort not out		 40
U. Tharanga not out		 71
Extras (LB-5, W-3, NB-1)	  9

TOTAL (for no loss, 28 overs)	120

BOWLING: Rasel 5-0-21-0, 
Hossain 8-2-43-0, 
Rafique 9-2-32-0, 
Haque 6-0-19-0.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Upul Tharanga (SRI).

    

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.