Mushfiqur Rahim achieves 'a dream' after history double century in Galle

Rahim is the first Bangladeshi to score a Test double ton, and he helped the team to Bangladesh's highest ever Test score - 638 - in Galle with the match destined for a draw.

Mushfiqur, on 198 at lunch, picked up two singles after the resumption and celebrated his double hundred by punching the air and kissing the turf.

He was immediately out for 200, trapped lbw by Nuwan Kulasekera off the next delivery but his gritty 321-ball knock, with 22 fours and a six, almost certainly saved the game.

"It was one of my dreams to score a Test double hundred," he said. "I thought that if I got the chance to bat for a long time and if I got a partner at the other end, I would like to score big.

"Fortunately Ash (Mohammad Ashraful) and Nasir (Hossain) batted really well so I had partners. We were saying beforehand that if someone gets set they must carry on and get a big hundred and that's what we did."

After Ashraful (190) had added one run to his overnight score, Hossain (100) joined in the run feast and became the sixth centurion in the match.

Hossain's maiden Test hundred came off 151 balls and contained nine fours.

The total by Bangladesh, ninth and last in the Test world rankings, eclipsed the 556 they compiled against West Indies in Dhaka in November.

"We needed my innings badly because Sri Lanka scored huge and we needed to avoid the follow-on," said Mushfiqur.

"That was our first target. Our second target was to make sure we passed their total."