Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne (left) is watched by teammate Dinesh Chandimal as he takes a catch to dismiss India’s Amit Mishra in Galle. (AFP)

IANS/Galle

Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews credited his entire team for putting up a brave performance with both bat and ball in the second innings to beat India by 63 runs in the first Test at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday. Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner Rangana Herath claimed seven wickets for just 48 runs as India, chasing 176 in the second innings, were bundled our for 112. The hosts have thus taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The second Test begins on August 20 in Colombo.
“What an absolute turnaround it was. I am speechless. It was a great effort by the whole team. It was a poor performance from the batting unit in the first innings, but we came back really strong and hard,” Mathews said after the match.
Sri Lanka had conceded a 192-run first innings lead. But Dinesh Chandimal (man-of-the-match) scored an unbeaten 162 to help the hosts avoid an innings defeat and take their second innings score to 367. Mathews heaped praise on Chandimal and Herath for their performance.
“It was a challenging wicket and I thought Chandimal was brilliant and he single-handedly gave us a fighting score. Rangana was outstanding with the ball as well. The wicket was pretty demanding. We were down and out for the first three days so we just thought we should give our best shot,” the Lankan skipper said.
“The spinners were outstanding. They had three spinners and the wicket was turning a lot, so we had to be aggressive. We just couldn’t play forward defence, we had to play the sweeps and the reverse-sweeps and it worked,” he added.
Mathews conceded he did not really think Sri Lanka could win at lunch on day three, but suggested the dire match situation unlocked the fearless attitude that won his team the Test.
“We were down and out for the first three and a half days,” Mathews said. “With Chandi’s innings - it gave us some sort of life to come back into the game. I think sometimes individually and as a team, when we have nothing to lose, you go out and give it your best shot. That’s what happened here for us as well. We had to go out there and get 192 runs to draw level with India, but not think about it too much - not think about a big lead. We just wanted a 100-150 lead to give our bowlers a chance at least.”
“After the first innings the batters got together and talked it out,” Mathews said. “We said we’ve got no other choice than being positive. That’s the approach we wanted to carry because there was no point just trying to hang in their way. We couldn’t have hung in there for three days to be honest. Chandimal made a real difference and the rest of the batters contributed however they could.”