Dan Lawrence and Jonny Bairstow are all smiles after carrying England to victory in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle

• Sri Lanka played their first innings as if they were in South Africa – Mickey Arthur

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s head coach Mickey Arthur said that his team played the first innings of the first cricket Test against England at the Galle International Cricket Stadium like they were still batting on South African pitches.

“The first innings was very poor, it was an unacceptable batting performance. I am not one to look for excuses. It was like we were batting at the Wanderers and the Centurion. In terms of tempo we hadn’t changed,” said Arthur after Sri Lanka had lost the first Test to England by seven wickets yesterday.

Sri Lanka were shot out for 135 in the first innings and despite scoring 359 in the second innings, left England who scored 421 in the first innings with only 74 to chase and win the Test. After an initial hiccup when they lost the first three wickets for 14 runs, Jonny Bairstow (35*) and debutant Dan Lawrence (21*) steered them home quite comfortably on the morning of the fifth and final day to seal and emphatic win in the two-Test series.

“Our tempo to batting in the subcontinent to coming back and batting in Sri Lanka where it is all about patience, about trusting your technique and about trusting your game plan, about wearing the opposition down and grinding away. We got that in the second innings after we had a long hard chat after our performance on day one and spoke about how we were going to make it better,” said Arthur.

“The guys responded very nicely in the second innings but it was too late. Even if we got 220 in our first innings we keep ourselves massively in the game, that was disappointing but we put it right in the second innings.

“I was very happy with what I saw on days three and four we can’t give up a Test match like we did on day one and expect to get a positive result but the fight and particularly the way the players adapted to the tempo of batting in the subcontinent, they got their game plans spot on. I take a lot of positivity out of days three and four, but days one and two are unacceptable and can’t happen for us to move forward in these conditions,” Arthur said.

The Lanka coach had a word of praise for Lahiru Thirimanne who led the Lankan second innings batting revival with a hard fought century.  

“I’ve heard all the rhetoric that has gone with Lahiru Thirimanne but since I worked with him all I’ve seen is a player that works incredibly hard at his game. He’s got a really good technique. I don’t know what’s gone before I can only talk about now,” said Arthur.

“We took him to South Africa because as a reserve batsman he played fast bowling very well. He played the quicks well at the Wanderers; we wanted him to turn the 30s into 100s and he came out here and he proved his worth. It was just rewards for a lot of effort that he has put in over the last couple of months with his batting. He has a good defence which is the qualities of Test match batting and I was really happy to see him put it all together in the second innings,” he said.

On the fitness of captain Dimuth Karunaratne who was forced to miss the first Test due to a hairline fracture on his left thumb, Arthur said, “At this stage it is unlikely (that he will be fit for the second Test starting on Friday). But we will see over the next couple of days. The injury toll coming out of South Africa was massive. He is probably unlikely but we will make a decision in the next day or two.”

From the way Sri Lanka bounced back in the second innings after a dismal first day performance England captain Joe Root named Man of the Match for his double hundred said, “I expect Sri Lanka to come back stronger in the second Test like they showed in their second innings.  They were very keen to improve on that first innings and we should expect them to come out and play in a very similar manner like they did in the second innings.

“They made it very hard work for us and performed very well as a batting group. We know they are a very good side in these conditions, they are a proud team as well with very high class players and they’ll be desperate to turn things round Friday. We just got to keep looking and learning all the time from this game and we will be a very hard side to beat.”

Root praised his bowling unit for the win and expected his spinners to perform much better in the second Test which will be played at the same venue. “It was a real impressive asset from the whole bowling group yesterday from lunch onwards we didn’t have a lot in our favour like on day one but we managed to hold the game for long periods of time and then we did get the ball in the right areas and create chances that really at no point did the score they got was within reach for us,” said Root.

“A lot of good things like big partnerships with the bat we did that very well and another first innings score over 400 a number of things we can take into the next game. We are very well aware that we have to keep looking to improve to get better if we are going to keep having continued success over the next five Test matches.”

“They (Dom Bess and Jack Leach) got a huge amount not just confidence in taking wickets but the amount of time they had out there. You can’t replicate spending time out there on the field in a match against international players. They will get better and better the more cricket they play. It’s not the art of spin bowling in terms of the skill and the technical elements you got but the mental aspects of it getting used to the heat and bowling in extreme conditions,” he said.

Sri Lanka’s stand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal congratulates Jonny Bairstow at the end of the first Test

Moeen Ali could yet play for England in second test

Root thanks England’s lone fan for devoted support