Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne struck his career best of 244 off 437 deliveries in the first test match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at Pallekele.

Loads of runs were scored in the first test match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. With Bangladesh batting first and declaring for 541 for 7, Sri Lanka were in a spot of bother.

In the hour of crisis, it was captain Dimuth Karunaratne who rose to the occasion, striking a classy double century. With patience as his ally, Karunaratne tired out the Bangladesh bowlers on a placid pitch at Pallekele to spend 656 minutes at the crease.

Karunaratne batted at a strike rate of 55 and struck 26 fours. It was his 345-run partnership with off-spin bowling all-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva, who scored 166 off 291 balls, that took the match away from Bangladesh's grasp.

A 11th Test century for Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne ??

His knock helps the hosts further reduce the first-innings deficit against Bangladesh to below 300.#SLvBAN | #WTC21 | https://t.co/o4z3X6g7HL pic.twitter.com/m03xCkR58u

— ICC (@ICC) April 24, 2021

Karunaratne has been one of the few successful test openers in the last decade and is capable of blunting even the fiercest attacks on green tracks with his watertight defence.

The Sri Lankan captain has scored close to 5,000 runs from 71 test matches at an average of 37.81 and strike rate of 49.24, with 11 centuries and 25 half-centuries.

Karunaratne was coming off three failures during the test series against West Indies and bounced back in style. His 244-run knock is only the second double century for Sri Lanka in the last six years.

© Cricket World 2021