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The Sri Lankan opener Karunaratne said that losing the 2nd test against Bangladesh will be a very dark phase in the history of the Sri Lankan board and he is very adhesive to his statement

Undoubtedly team Bangladesh is doing very well and to an extent they are living the best time of their peaking career that is roaring to touch the heights and fly even more higher as of they are now

“We have never lost a Test match to Bangladesh in the history. It will be a big embarrassment if we lose here,” Karunaratne, who made a fine 126 batting for nearly six hours, told journalists.

“We have only got ourselves to blame if we lose. We need to owe up to the mistake. We have actually won our last six Test matches at home and losing here will be unacceptable. We are aware of what is at stake. We will come out all guns blazing tomorrow and defend whatever the target we have to defend,” Karunaratne added.

“Mustafizur took the game away from us. He reverse swung the ball well. He was bowling around the wicket for right-handers and the angle he was creating was difficult for the batsmen. We knew what he was doing and we had a plan to play the ball that was coming in and leave the ball that was going away. He bowls a maximum of five overs in a spell and we should have played that out,” Karunaratne felt.

“We panicked. We didn’t plan things out well. The wicket was set and that perhaps gave us a false sense of security to go for runs instead of seeing off that crucial period,” Karunaratne explained.

Dilruwan Perera and Suranga Lakmal negotiated the last 40 minutes without losing their wickets and Karunaratne hoped they can extend the stand on day five.

“Our lead is close to 140. If we can get closer to 200 so much the better. We have to remain positive and rotate the strike and see how it goes. If these guys can do it we will be delighted. But it will be tough.”

Bangladesh openers – Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar – have given them decent starts in the series adding 118, 67 and 95 for the first wicket in three innings in the series so far. Karunaratne felt that dismissing the openers early will be the key. “Their openers have done exceptionally well. They have scored lot of runs and we can put pressure on their batsmen if we can dismiss one of them early.”

It was Karunaratne’s fifth Test hundred and the first against Bangladesh. “I was so focused that I didn’t realize that my hundred had come. I wanted to stay not out and take the pressure to Bangladesh. I didn’t celebrate much. I was disappointed when I was dismissed. Felt bad as I could have done more for the team.”

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