(Updates at tea)
KANDY, Sri Lanka, July 12 - Sri Lanka spinner
Muttiah Muralitharan took six wickets to help bowl out
Bangladesh for 131 on the rain-hit second day of the third and
final test on Thursday.
The start of play was delayed by rain but Sri Lanka still
had time to finish off the Bangladesh innings, which had
resumed on 72 for four.
Heavy rain then prevented the Sri Lanka innings from
starting after early lunch was called. Play is expected to
resume after tea but more weather interruptions are likely.
Muralitharan, playing in his home town, was the chief
threat, finishing with figures of six for 28 from 14.5 overs,
his 59th five-wicket haul in his 113th test.
He took his career tally to 694 wickets, just 14 short of
Australian leg spinner Shane Warne's world record 708 victims.
Bangladesh started promisingly with skipper Mohammad
Ashraful (26) and Tushar Imran (17) extending their
fifth-wicket stand to 34.
Left-armer Sujeewa de Silva broke through when Mahela
Jayawardene held a straightforward slip catch off a loose drive
from Imran.
That was soon followed by the dismissal of Ashraful, caught
behind off De Silva, and the last six wickets tumbled for just
33 runs in 13.3 overs.
Muralitharan should have had a wicket off his first
delivery, Ashraful getting a reprieve after edging a wild
drive, but he soon struck with a brilliant one-handed catch to
dismiss Mashrafe Mortaza.
Muralitharan claimed another caught and bowled when
Mohammad Rafique top-edged a slog-sweep before Shahdat Hossain
and Syed Rasel were snapped up at bat-pad.