Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh 2017: 2nd Test, 5 talking points

#2 Karunaratne's career saving knock

Under pressure, Karunaratne played a career saving innings

Dimuth Karunaratne knew he needed a big knock to retain his place as opener in the side. He had watched the selectors dump his partner in South Africa, Kaushal Silva, rather unceremoniously. But it could very well have been him too.

Both the openers were struggling for form and Karunaratne's worrying returns in the first three innings in the series meant that the last and final innings was pretty important for Karunaratne.

The southpaw, however, pushed aside the huge burden of pressure off his shoulders and smacked a typically gritty hundred. He played the anchor role, much akin to what Chandimal did in the first innings, to compile a fine hundred and help Sri Lanka not collapse against some disciplined bowling.