THE GENIUS MISFIELD

Things were getting a little too close for comfort in the morning session. Nearly 50 minutes had passed and Sri Lanka's lead had grown to 190. Dimuth Karunaratne had hit a fifty and was likely thinking of a heist after he and Suranga Lakmal had survived a few mishits and a review during Mustafizur Rahman's first spell.

Off the fourth ball of the 113th over bowled by Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Karunaratne tucked a ball off his legs and Subhashis at short square leg misfielded the ball. Knowing that Subhashis was not the sharpest knife in Bangladesh's fielding drawer, Karunaratne set off for a run. But Subhashis had it under control all along. He recovered quickly and fired in a throw at Miraz who, being Bangladesh's best fielder, beautifully gathered a half-volley and sent Karunaratne on his way.

MOSADDEK'S ATTEMPTED REVENGE

In Sri Lanka's second innings on Saturday, Mosaddek Hossain was the bowler at the wrong end of a gaffe by umpire Aleem Dar in the last ball of the day. Dar at first nodded his head when he saw Lakmal, off whose thigh pad a claimed bat-pad catch was taken at short leg, begin to walk off.

But it was just the umpire's need to be right when proven wrong by a batsman's initiative. Lakmal stayed and Dar said no, and Bangladesh wasted a review.

Yesterday evening with 21 runs to win Mosaddek advanced down the track and hit one of the hardest shots of the match straight at Dar's head, only for Herath to get in the way and drop the catch. Intended or otherwise, after a match in which Bangladesh got the wrong end of the stick as far as decisions were concerned, it would have been a gruesome revenge.

AND HIS CLASSY CORRECTION

Having been dropped with 21 runs to clinch a historic win, in his debut match no less, Mosaddek was least bothered. The first one was a mistake, the second ball will set it straight. Immediately after being dropped by Herath, Mosaddek stepped out again and this time his target was over long off. The one-bounce four was the moment when the wind seemed to have gone out of Sri Lanka's sail.