Dhaka: The Tigers were struggling at 56 for 4 replying to Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 222 runs on the first day of the series-deciding match at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Thursday.

Sri Lankan bowler Lakmal made the first breakthrough in the innings as he found Bangladesh’s reliable opener Tamim Iqbal caught and bowled in the very 3rd ball of the match by a one handed catch silencing the home crowd.

Tamim, who hit a boundary in the 2nd ball, scored only four runs off three balls leaving the team total at 4.

Mominul Haque, who emerged as the first Bangladesh cricketer to score centuries in both the innings of a Test in Chittagong, miserably went back to the pavilion with duck playing three balls after falling victim of run out by Del Silva and Dickwella combination off a Perera delivery when the scorecard was showing the same scorer of 4 runs for 2 in 1.3 overs.

Lakmal took his 2nd wicket bowling out former Bangladesh Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, who collected only one run playing 22 balls at 12 runs in 9 overs.

And Imrul Kayes went to the dressing room throwing his wicket in the afternoon.

Bangladesh scored 27 for 3 in 15 overs till the filing of this report with Imrul Kayes (14) and Liton Das (7) in the crease.      

Earlier, Bangladesh’s spin strength diminished the visiting Sri Lanka’s batting supremacy claiming all wickets for 222 in 65.3 overs in the middle of the 1st day’s 3rd session in the 1st innings of the decider of the two-Test series.

Country’s veteran left-handed spinner Abdur Razzak got four wickets on his Test return for the national side after over a four-year break and another left-arm spinner Taijul Islam dismissed identical four wickets while cutter master Mustafizur Rahman got the remaining two wickets to tackle the upper-hand Sri Lanka who opened the 1st innings with bat after winning the toss and equally lost eight wickets in the first two sessions while the rest two wickets in the 3rd session on the day.

The visitors scored 105 off 31st overs in the first session, 100 off 26.1 overs in the second session before ending the innings in the middle of the 3rd session adding 17 runs more off 8.2 overs.