With seven goals conceded by Kamindu Mendis and Prabath Jayasuriya combined, Bangladesh was down seven points going into the last day.
On day four, Sri Lanka picked up seven wickets against Bangladesh and proceeded to cruise to a 2-0 series win, facing little opposition resistance. As Bangladesh attempted to bat out nearly five and a half sessions to rescue the match, or reach the record 511 runs they required to win, Mominul Haque reached fifty. Their greatest partnership was the 61 Litton Das and Shakib Al Hasan put on for the fifth wicket. Mehidy Hasan Miraz was undefeated at stumps, but nobody else scored above 40.
For the first time in the series, spin proved to be a formidable weapon for Sri Lanka, even if the Chattogram surface was still developing slowly. The seamers went seeking for significant seam movement, pace, carry, and reverse swing late in the day, but it was not offering any of these. For Sri Lanka, the main strategy was to be persistent and keep asking the Bangladeshi batters different questions.
Dhananjaya de Silva had no problem keeping catchers close to him and attempting novel offensive strategies because he had so many runs to protect. You could count on the batters from Bangladesh to finally give up. Nobody managed to endure over 74 balls.
After bowling 20 overs, Prabath Jayasuriya took 2 for 79. In the opening dig, Zakir Hasan scored a fifty, but Vishwa Fernando removed him from the game. Lahiru Kumara also claimed two. The two wickets claimed by Kamindu Mendis, who garnered more turn than the more seasoned spinners (de Silva also dismissed seven overs), caught Sri Lanka off guard. Although Kamindu can bowl left-arm spin as well, he stayed with offbreaks this time, taking out Shakib for his first Test wicket before also removing Shahadat Hossain leg before wicket to end the day with 2 for 22.
Angelo Mathews was the final batsman for Sri Lanka to reach fifty in this game earlier in the day; the other six players in the top seven had all reached fifty in the opening innings. Shakib, who did not rejoice with much fervor despite their “timed out” history, gave him a fantastic delivery. After batting till their lead exceeded 500, Sri Lanka let Bangladesh to finish the final 40 minutes before lunch, which they accomplished without incident, albeit they lost wickets shortly after.
After the interval, Mahmudul Hasan Joy was the first to fall, as Jayasuriya’s slider turned his middle stump over. Zakir also didn’t survive long, giving Vishwa the advantage to slip first. They were still adrift. After a terrible sequence, Najmul Hossain Shanto was hit with a superb delivery from Kumara that angled in from outside of the crease and rattled the top of his off stump. Mominul, who has been Bangladesh’s finest batsman in the Tests, reached his 18th career fifty off 55 deliveries, but he was caught at deep square leg after top-edging a sweep off Jayasuriya.
The wickets were broken by the Shakib-Litton stand. They strategically collected singles, hit confident boundaries, and stopped the quicks’ short-ball assaults on a pitch that had lost its bounce. But before they could really start to sweat, they fell. Shakib was edging to gully for Kamindu with an offbreak that turned more than the batsman anticipated, and Litton was trying to retrieve a Kumara bouncer from wide outside off when he toe-edged it to the wicketkeeper.
