The wicket got a lot easier: Simmons

It was a day of toil for Bangladesh on the field on day two in the Colombo Test against hosts Sri Lanka as they picked up just two wickets with the ball. Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons said that the wicket improved in terms of batting which led to Sri Lanka's domination with the bat.

Bangladesh innings folded for 247 today before Sri Lanka showed how to make good on batting-friendly surfaces. The opening pair of Pathum Nissanka and Lahiru Udara put on 88 before Nissanka and Dinesh Chandimal strung together a 194-run stand for the third wicket as Sri Lanka ended day two on  290 for 2.

"I think it was a hard day of Test cricket. The wicket got a lot easier. It was nice to bat today. We struggled to get wickets, which is expected on a good surface, so it was a difficult day for the bowlers," Simmons said in the press conference after the day's play.

"The wicket definitely improved. On the first day, it was a bit sticky and slightly two-paced. Today, it got a lot better, and we saw how easy it was for the batters. There wasn't as much turn as yesterday, and the batters batted well. That's what Test cricket is about sometimes," he added.

Ebadot Hossain appeared to lack a bit of intensity while the spinners toiled for long spells but found it difficult to provide breakthroughs. Taijul Islam got Udara out for 40 while Nayeem Hasan denied Chandimal a ton late in the day but apart from those two dismissals there was not much to write home about.

 Simmons felt Bangladesh missed the trick with the bat, suggesting Bangladesh batters learn from Nissanka, who remained unbeaten on 146 at stumps.

"Where we missed a trick was not building big partnerships yesterday. As a result, we went into today with only two or three wickets in hand. It comes back to our batting and the partnerships we failed to build.

"At least two or three guys should have carried on yesterday and gotten big scores. I hope we've taken note of how well Nissanka batted, and that we come out in the second innings aiming for big runs," he concluded.