What the key players had to say
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Virat Kohli:
“We got no one to blame but ourselves. Credit should go to Angelo and his team. We failed to capitalise after taking the first five wickets (in the second innings), we should have finished the game in that session, one bad session and the game can turn, that is how Test cricket is. Rangana Herath is an outstanding bowler; he put our batsmen under pressure. The wicket behaved strangely it looked hard on the first morning. Angelo chose to bat, it started spinning, in our first innings it played nicely and we got a good total. We thought it would get more difficult, the way Dinesh and the others batted, it kept Sri Lanka in the hunt.
Angelo Mathews:
“What a turnaround. I am speechless, it was a great effort. It was a poor batting performance by us in the first innings. But we came back. Yes, Chandimal was outstanding; he single-handedly got us to a fighting score. The wicket was pretty demanding, we were down and out for three and a half days. We have good quality spinners, we tried just go out there be positive and bowl in good areas. They had three spinners and the wicket was turning quite a lot. We had to play positively; we had to play our shots, sweeps and reverse sweeps.”
Rangana Herath:
“What a wonderful comeback. Getting out for 183 and we had a bad time in the first innings but we recovered well with the aid of Chandimal and his partnerships. What I thought is I need to give my best. I gave my 100 percent, that is why I succeeded I guess. Even last evening I had a chat with our spin coach. We did realise something was wrong and we worked on it. That is the reason for this success. I am carrying bit of an injury as well. My knees are a bit sore. But you have to give 100 percent when you are playing for your country. Even at 37 I am competing with the younger guys. Before the fourth innings, what the captain said was this can be a turnaround game.”
Man of the match Dinesh Chandimal:
“It was not an easy wicket to bat on. I tried reverse-sweeps and sweep. I thought I could put some pressure on the bowlers. I tried to rotate the strike. Credit goes to Sangakkara, Mathews, Thirimanne and Mubarak as well. They batted well. I thought a lead of 175-plus might be a good total. Herath was outstanding. We all know he is a legend.”