“He bowls and puts pressure from one end, and I was doing the same,” Ramesh Mendis says of his partnership with Praveen Jayawickrama

There was nothing wrong with Bangladesh’s approach in their second innings of the second Test in Pallekele on a pitch that has changed significantly, according to Najmul Hossain Shanto, but they are up against it at 177 for 5 with Liton Das and Mehidy Hasan at the crease, and the target still 260 away.

In the 48 overs they have faced so far, the Bangladesh batters haven’t really taken to stonewalling. All the top-five batters played briskly – Shanto’s strike rate of 59.09 was the slowest of the lot – but none of them managed to cross Mushfiqur Rahim’s score of 40. Shanto, who made 26 off 44 balls before Praveen Jayawickrama got one to hit his stumps, said that Bangladesh would have been happier had they lose two wickets fewer.

“I think being negative makes life more difficult for the batsmen on this wicket,” he said. “[Being] positive doesn’t necessarily mean hitting every ball; it wasn’t the plan. But we played with intent. It is normal for spinners to get help from the pitch on the fourth and fifth day of a Test match. We all made good starts, but we couldn’t go on. It would have been a better day had we lost three wickets.”