Sylhet, March 24 (ICC) - Sri Lanka's Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis became just the third pair to partner in two 150-plus run stands in the same Test.

 

Bangladesh achieved early success on day three of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Sylhet, when they sent back night watchman Vishwa Fernando for merely four. 

 

However, just like the first innings, Sri Lanka skipper Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis came together and helped Sri Lanka out of the trouble. Their positive strokeplay gave the island nation a big advantage in the game, as the lead bloomed past 300 by the 54th over. When their partnership hit the 150-run mark in the 77th over, it was only the third time in the history of the game that two 150-plus stands had been achieved in the same Test by the same pair.

The 173-run stand was eventually broken when Dhananjaya dished a Mehidya Hasan Miraz delivery straight to Zakir Hasan. By then, Dhananjaya de Silva had scored 108, to follow up on his first innings effort of 102. This was the first time since 2014 that a Sri Lanka player had scored a hundred in each innings of a Test. The last time a player achieved this feat, was back in 2014 when Kumar Sangakkara (319 and 105) against the same opposition in Chattogram.