Chittagong: Sri Lanka's experienced batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene combined for a century stand to steer the visitors to 196-2 at tea on the first day of the first test against Bangladesh on Tuesday.
Sangakkara was four runs away from his 34th test century while Jayawardene, fresh from a double century, hit an unbeaten 54. They added 147 for the third wicket.
Their partnership put Sri Lanka on top after Bangladesh had made early inroads with two wickets in the first session. The hosts' spinners could not apply sufficient pressure on the veteran Sri Lanka duo.
Bangladesh was loaded heavily with spinners, and they managed to elicit bounce and turn from the pitch right form the first hour of the day.
Bangladesh bowled with discipline early and Sohag Gazi (1-60) reaped the rewards removing Kaushal Silva, trapping him lbw on 11.
Dimuth Karunaratne scored a more lively 31 but was out to a loose shot, cutting a short and wide delivery from Al-Amin Hossain (1-34) straight to point where Mahmudullah took the catch.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene, the two most experienced batsmen of the side were hardly troubled by the spinners and steered Sri Lanka to a strong position to push for a big first-inning score.
Sri Lanka earlier won the toss and skipper Angelo Mathews, who said the wicket would be good for batting for the first couple of days, elected to bat first.
