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Changed, but not for too long

BlSHWAJIT ROY in Chittagong
When others had no clue Mohammad Ashraful looked calm, determined and of course skilful
to handle the versatile attack on a tricky pitch at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium yesterday.
It was unusual the way the Bangladesh captain started his innings after a brilliant hundred in the first Test at Mirpur. He hardly has any reputation as a consistent performer and that's why nobody expected anything from him when he came to bat with the scoreboard reading 33 for three in reply to Sri Lanka's384.
But it seemed that the righthander was focused on his job to silent the critics as well as bringing his team out of trouble and it could have been a day for the little man if he hadn't made the mistake to put a premature end to his innings.
In the end Mashrafe ensured some solace by smashing his third half-century to avoid the follow-on, but still the visitors managed a handsome first innings lead of 176 runs, but the question was all around: Why has Ashraful made that stupid mistake?
Ashraful was undaunted despite the wickets falling at regular intervals on the other end and he concentrated on the singles to rotate the strike but suddenly the Bangladesh skipper thought that the time has come for him to play some adventurous shot though his side was wobbling.
He charged down the pitch to loft with the turn of Muttiah
Muralidaran to sail the ball over deep midwicket and immediately executed a beautiful cover drive to the fence against the same bowler and then he charged another dangerman Ajantha Mendis in the very next over for a boundary through mid-wicket.
Bangladesh captain might have tried to complete his half-century quickly to ease the
pressure but he paid for his aggressiveness. He had survived twice while trying to play the reverse sweep but it could not stop him from trying again.
He played a little too early against Muralidaran and the ball lobbed off the toe of the bat to reach at the safe hands of wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene and umpire
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Nigel Llong had no hesitation to raise his finger.
A could-have-been brilliant knock finished at 45.
Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons had only one word to him to describe the suicidal effort of his captain: "frustrating”.
"I don't know but he might relax at times,” he added when asked about the reason behind the shot.
Sri Lanka p ace m an Chaminda Vaas, who made the initial damage by removing the two openers Tamim Iqbal (0) and Imrul Kayes (6), however defended Bangladesh skipper and said that it was not easy to survive in this kind of wicket
especially against their bowlingattack.
"1 think the skipper (Mohammad Ashraful) handled the spinners very well but it is not easy to slay at the wicket and not score runs. Our seamers put pressure from both ends and when they were off Bangladesh needed some runs and I thought Ashraful got out trying to do that," he explained the reason behind Ash ra ful's aggressive approach.
"I think we bowled well on a slow wicket. The spinners were very good and tried to get them out but Mortaza batted extremely well," said the leftarmseamer.
"We have a 178-run lead and need to put up a good score. The pitch is slow with low bounce and I don't think it will change much in the next three days. I believe it could get slower and slower as the match progresses," he observed.
Sri Lanka, who lost their remaining four first innings wicket for 13 runs in the morning, finished the day's play at 13 without loss to extend their lead to 178.
Left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan continued his impressive show by taking three wickets in the morning to finish at four for 109 but in the end his effort was spoiled by yet another brittle batting.