Sri Lanka batsmen enjoy run spree

Second Test, Colombo, day one (close): Sri Lanka 449-7 v Bangladesh

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Samaraweera acknowledges applause for his century

Sri Lanka shrugged off a poor start to pile up 449-7 on the opening day of the second Test against Bangladesh.

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Thilan Samaraweera hit centuries after coming together with the score on 48-4.

They put on 280 for the fifth wickets with Dilshan making 168, his highest Test score, and Samaraweera 138.

Shahadat Hossain and Syed Rasel took three wickets each for Bangladesh, but their figures were dented in the final session as 180 were added to the total.

Chaminda Vaas was 61 not out at the close, made from only 56 balls, with Muttiah Muralitharan on 24.

Things looked very different in the morning session after home skipper Marvan Atapattu won the toss and chose to bat.

Opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya received a aspecial award before the start of play in recognition of him becoming the first Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests.

But neither he nor Atapattu spent long in the middle as Hossain and Rasel struck in successive overs.

Atapattu was caught behind for 11 as Hossain's out-swinger took the edge and Jayasuriya fell lbw to Rasel for 13.

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara both failed, but Dilshan and Samaraweera prevented further damage before lunch and launched a counter-attack following the resumption.

Dilshan forces the ball away through the covers for a boundary

Dilshan was the more agggressive, reaching his fourth Test hundred off 104 balls with 17 fours and a six, and he went on to beat his previous highest Test score of 163 not out against Zimbabwe in 1999 before he was caught behind off medium-pacer Aftab Ahmed.

Their stand was the highest for the fifth wicket in Sri lanka's Test history, beating the 234-run partnership between Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya against Bangladesh in 2002.

Samaraweera's century took 173 balls and he had collected 20 fours in total before becoming Rasel's third victim with the total on 397.

Hossain had Rangana Herath lbw for one in the next over but ended the day with figures of 3-103 as Vaas and Muralitharan hit out in the final overs of play.

Rasel ended play with 3-125, but spinners Mohammad Rafique and Enamul Haque failed to produce a single wicket between them for a combined cost of 162 runs.

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Sri Lanka: M S Atapattu (Capt), S T Jayasuriya, K C Sangakkara (Wkt), D P M D Jayawardene, T T Samaraweera, T M Dilshan, W P U J C Vaas, H M R K B Herath, M Muralitharan, C R D Fernando, S L Malinga.

Bangladesh: Javed Omar, Shahriar Nafees, Habibul Bashar (Capt) Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Nafees Iqbal, Khaled Mashud (Wkt), Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque jnr, Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain.

Sri Lanka won toss and decided to bat

Umpires: B F Bowden and S A Bucknor