Centurion Mathews says wicket will assist spin from day three
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Though batsmen were greeted with a placid track on the first two days of the second Test between Sri Lanka and England, Angelo Mathews who made his 11th Test century to put Sri Lanka in a good position to win the match, expects the wicket to assist the spin bowling from day three.
Sri Lanka scored 381 on the back of some impressive batting performances from Mathews (110), Dinesh Chandimal (52), Niroshan Dickwella (92) and Dilruwan Perera (67) in the first innings. In response England lost both openers cheaply but skipper Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow added unbeaten 93 runs for the third wicket to steady their innings.
“We saw some turn late in the day and that’s a good sign for us,” said Angelo Mathews at the post match press conference. “We are in a good position of the match at the moment and we need to break this partnership early tomorrow (Sunday) to seize control of the game. Both Root and Bairstow play spin well. We got three spinners with us and we should try and break this partnership as early as possible.”
The former Sri Lanka spinner also credited 38-year-old English fast bowlers for using all his experience to bowl brilliantly on a dead wicket.
“I have played out over 230 deliveries to get those runs. But against any other team, I would have scored 150 runs on that wicket. All credit to Anderson for consistently bowling at right areas and putting pressure on the batsman. It’s not easy for a fast bowler to come and bowl like that on this wicket,” he said.