Sri Lanka’s stand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal has admitted that the hosts were outplayed in the first innings with both the bat and ball, which cost them after his team suffered a 7-wicket defeat in the first Test of the two-Test series against England at Galle, on Monday (January 18).
Chandimal had won the toss and chose to bat first as the Islanders were looking to put a large total on the board against England but ended up putting a paltry total of 135 and then England posted 421 with captain Joe Root contributing 228 in their first innings to take the significant first-innings lead at Galle.
However, Sri Lanka showed a brilliant fightback in the second innings as they were scoring over 300 runs and were close to scoring 400 but Jack Leach’s 5/122 turned the match in favor of England as the hosts were bowled out for 359 and eventually suffered a 7-wicket defeat in the first Test on Monday.
Chandimal said: “We were outplayed in the first innings with both the bat and ball and that cost us the game. If you are playing at Galle, you have to get a big total in the first innings but we didn’t and that is what has cost us. The first innings total is crucial when you are playing on this kind of track.”
However, he was pleased with his team’s fightback in the second innings against England.
The stand-in skipper further added: “There were some outstanding knocks in the second innings and if we’d got another 70-80 runs, this could have been a different story.”
Galle traditionally assists the batsmen initially but the wicket deteriorates quickly to allow spinners a chance to dominate the batters and Chandimal said the hosts must learn from the mistakes that they made in the first Test as they are looking forward to the second and final Test, which is also scheduled to play at the Galle International Stadium starting Friday (January 22).
He signed off by saying, “We had just come from South Africa and I felt our batting unit thought they were playing out there. We have to learn from those mistakes. We must take the positives out of this and look forward to the next one. I think the first innings total is going to be crucial again.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
