Sri Lanka head coach Chandika Hathurusingha believes that the home campaign against England was a very “closely fought” and the difference between the two teams was very little after being whitewashed twice by a touring side from outside Asia on Monday (November 26).
He further went on to point out that Sri Lankan fielding and lack of consistency in batting cost them the series to England, saying the hosts competed well, but the English side handled the pressure situations better, resulting emerged as a winner here in the all formats series.
Sri Lanka managed to win only One Day International in their full-flagged home campaign, lost the ODI series 1-3, one-off T20 International and three-match Test series 0-3 as well.
Hathurusingha told reporters at the post-match the press conference, “I thought it was a very closely fought series, especially the last two games. The difference between the two teams was very little. I thought England handled tough situations well. Ben Stokes was the difference in the last two games I thought when things were going our way. He was brilliant with the ball and on the field. He took the game away from us in both games. When we were 173 for one again England took the initiative away from us. Our fielding is another reason for us to come second best in this series.”
The coach continued, “I thought in these last two games, given our inexperienced attack due to the absence of Rangana [Herath], I thought we competed well. The big difference is three [four] hundreds they scored and no hundreds from us. The toss has got a lot to do as well when you are playing on these types of wickets. But all in all, England played better.”
He signed off by saying, “This is what we have got. Maturity comes with the continuous opportunities we give players. I am hoping that they learn quickly. On these kinds of surfaces, it is tough for batsmen. Everyone who got a start got a decent score. Batting second and fourth is tough. Batting moving forward in conditions we will get, I am sure we will show more skill. This is the best batting unit we have.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
