Angelo Mathews has revealed how former teammate and batting great Kumar Sangakkara helped turn things around for him with the bat, as the right-hander followed his defiant 83 in the first innings with a dominating 120* in the second to secure a highly respectable draw for Sri Lanka against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.

Mathews, who was going through a career-threatening slump with the willow and recently got dropped from the limited overs set-up over fitness issues, seems to have finally found that 2014-15 season mojo back and he feels thankful for the guidance that the affable "Sanga" provided him.

"The last time we played at the Basin, Kumar (Sangakkara) scored a fabulous double hundred. Prior to that, he had scored a match-winning 150 in 2006. So I was chatting to him to find out his mindset during those knocks and his thought process," Mathews told Firstpost about Sanga, who averages 61 in Tests and 45 in ODIs played in New Zealand, "We spoke about having different shots for each of the New Zealand bowlers.

"These were the exact bowlers who were playing when we were here in 2015. Getting to know about how he started off and stuff is important. Then obviously my experience also came in handy."

The 31-year-old also spoke about his amusing celebrations after reaching the ton, where he did a Misbah-ul-Haq and went through ten push-ups to obviously send a message across to those who doubted his fitness regime.

"I don’t want to get deep into it. The message is clear," Mathews signed off.

With runs under his belt and a lot of confidence regained, Mathews would be desperate to continue the way he has started. Who would've thought that Sri Lanka will stand a chance to win the two-match Test series ahead of the Boxing Day Test starting December 26.