Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by an innings and 137 runs - Bangladesh 328 all out Sri Lanka resumed their supremacy by mopping up the last five Bangladeshi wickets for just 25 runs in 44 balls to record an innings victory in the second mismatch of the Asian Test Championship.

Bangladesh slipped from 303 for 5 to 328 all out, with Ruchira Perera taking three of the last five wickets to fall, and Muttiah Muralitharan claiming the other two. It meant Murali finished with 5 for 98 in the innings and 10 for 111 in the match, to reach 350 wickets in his Test career.

Sri Lanka will now meet Pakistan in the final in February, although the two sides must still play each other in the group stage of the competition.

Mid-afternoon - Bangladesh 265 for 5 (Mohammad Ashraful 102*, Naimur Rahman 23*), still 200 runs behind Sri Lanka

Some say he is 17 tomorrow. Others reckon he turned 17 in July. Either way, Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful, born in 1984, today broke the world record for the youngest Test centurion, held for 40 years by Mushtaq Mohammad of Pakistan.

Ashraful did it by forgetting all about the match situation and going for his shots, frequently dancing down the pitch to loft the Sri Lankan spinners, even Murali, back over their heads. He cruised to 98, then a few nerves set in as he played and missed at Chaminda Vaas before thick-edging to the rope at third man to bring up his 100 off 169 balls with 14 fours.

Bangladesh have had a wretched Asian Test Championship but today their luck changed as Ashraful played with the freedom of youth and found the perfect partners in two of the elders of the team. First he added 126 for the fifth wicket with Aminul Islam, a new Bangladesh record for any wicket. They batted through the morning and were parted only on the stroke of lunch when Islam swept at Sanath Jayasuriya's slow left-arm and was bowled round his legs for 56.

Ashraful, then on 68, was joined by Naimur Rahman, Bangladesh's captain, and they added 50 with little difficulty. He moved rapidly into the 80s and got away with a couple of miscues on 87 and 94 before reaching the hundred that all Bangladesh had been waiting for.

Ashraful's birthday is variously given as September 9 and July 7. Either he is the first 16-year-old ever to make a Test hundred (Sachin Tendulkar didn't manage it till he was 17 years 112 days), or he is the fourth 17-year-old. Either way, he is the youngest man, or boy, to do it, pipping Mushtaq Mohammad (17 and 82 days) by at least 19 days. Out of nowhere, a star is born.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd