Related Links : Bangladesh in Sri Lanka 2007 : Scorecard
Muttiah Muralitharan became only the second bowler ever to take 700 Test Wickets. He did so when he had Syed Rasel miscuing one to bowl Sri Lanka to an innings and 193 run-win. With that the 3-0 whitewash was also accomplished by the Lankans and for Bangladesh all the three losses were sadly innings defeats. Muralitharan bagged both the Man of the Match and the Man of the Series awards despite Kumar Sangakkara’s two double hundreds!
Sri Lanka as expected declared at their overnight total of 500 for 4. Bangladesh started off in a promising fashion but their partnerships were only pocket sized ones. The first break for the homeside came when Javed Omar was caught napping to a sharp rising delivery from Lasith Malinga in the 16th over with Bangladesh putting 47 on the board. Javed Omar till then was showing good resistance, scoring 22 from 56 balls. Murali then got his first wicket when Habibul Bashar lost his cool to get clean bowled going for a big heave. Atleast the former Captain spent enough time in the middle to put up a 51-run stand with left hander Shahriar Nafees.
Rain happened to visit the stadium at around lunchtime but play could get underway on time in the second session. By lunch, Shahriar Nafees had brought up his third fifty. He couldn’t last long though as he was consumed by a sharp off break from Murali which also went onto trap Ashraful on the pads to leave Bangladesh at 138 for 4. Nafees had made 64 from 115 with 9 fours while Ashraful got 19. At the same score of 138, Sri Lanka got another wicket, this time the left arm medium pacer Sujeewa de Silva managing to bring an uncharacteristically loose shot from Mushfiqur Rahim, who was out for 1 from 20 balls. Sujeewa followed the same principle of throwing it wide of the stumps and induce a false drive to Rajin Saleh. And then afterwards, wickets fell in a hurry.
To begin with, Mashrafe Mortaza, the potential all rounder yet again failed with the bat and Tushar Imran, the last recognized batsman flicked a reverse swinging delivery from Lasith Malinga straight to short mid wicket. The tail just folded in no time to Muralitharan, who got his second six-wicket haul in this test match. Bangladesh were bundled out for 176 in just 59 overs. Murali’s figures were 6 for 54 in 21 overs to follow up is first innings figures of 6 for 28 in 14.5 overs. He needs 8 more wickets to equal Shane Warne. Bangladesh would be immensely relieved that the Test Series has finally come to and end, they know very well that they compete in the One Day Series atleast.