Sri Lanka's inexperienced spin duo of Praveen Jayawickrama and Ramesh Mendis took all five Bangladesh wickets to fall in the tourists' second innings on day four of the second Test at Pallekele on Sunday.
At stumps, Bangladesh slumped to 177-5 chasing a stiff 437 to win as Sri Lanka closed in on a memorable win.
The hosts needs five wickets on the final day to wrap up the game and the series after the first Test ended in a draw.
In its first innings, Bangladesh was cruising at 214-3 in response to Sri Lanka's 493-7 declared before collapsing to all out for 251 and a first-innings deficit of 242. Sri Lanka then extended its lead, adding 194-9 before declaring for a second time.
Jayawickrama and Mendis had accounted for eight wickets in the first innings and they were a handful again in the second with Mendis finishing with figures of 3-86 and Jayawickrama returning 2-58.
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Jayawickrama was a last-minute call-up to the Test squad due to injuries and bowled exceptionally well with a clever change of angles and flight that kept Bangladesh batsmen on edge throughout.
In the first innings, Jayawickrama picked up 6-92, the best figures by a Sri Lankan on debut. He should have claimed the best figures in a match by a Sri Lankan debutant as well but Mushfiqur Rahim was dropped by Lahiru Thirimanne at slip.
He now has eight wickets for 150 runs in the game and only Akila Dananjaya had fared better on debut having claimed 8-44 against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2018.
Amid few bright spots for the tourists, Mushfiqur went on to top score with his 40 runs from 63 deliveries that included five boundaries.
Mendis, meanwhile, wasn’t as accurate but managed to get extra bounce that also troubled the batsmen.
Sri Lanka has not won a Test since January 2020, a span that covers eight Test matches.
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