Murali, Vaas jolt Bangladesh

Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas shared four wickets to rattle Bangladesh on the second day of the opening Test against Sri Lanka here on Saturday.

Left-arm seamer Vaas dismissed opener Imrul Kayes and skipper Mohammad Ashraful in four overs as Bangaldesh struggled to reach 95-4 in their first innings at tea in reply to the tourists' 293.

Sri Lanka were bowled out on the stroke of lunch after resuming at 172-6, with middle-order batsman Thilan Samaraweera top-scoring with a solid 90.

Bangladesh made a decent 44-run start through Kayes (33) and Tamim Iqbal (17) before faltering against Vaas and off-spinner Muralitharan.

The spinner struck with his second delivery when he had Iqbal caught by a diving Malinda Warnapura at short-leg and then bowled Junaid Siddique (29) in the last over before the interval.

Samaraweera earlier looked set to complete his eighth Test hundred before being the last man out, caught by Siddique at first slip off left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan after hitting 13 fours.

Hasan took two of the four wickets that fell in the morning to finish with an impressive 5-70, his third successive haul of five or more wickets in a Test innings.

Seamers Mashrafe Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain took two wickets apiece.

Sri Lanka denied the hosts success for nearly two hours in the morning session, with Samaraweera and lower-order batsman Vaas adding 99 for the seventh wicket.

Mortaza broke their stand with the second new ball when he had Vaas caught behind for 37, which included six fours.

The tourists' innings did not last long after Vaas's dismissal as they lost their last three wickets for just eight runs.

The second and final Test starts in Chittagong on January 3.