I misread the pitch but our bowlers were brilliant: Mathews

Sri Lanka Captain Angelo Mathews on Sunday after losing the match against New Zealand in a close finish admitted he misread the pitch but was full of praise for the team for fighting hard and singled out the bowlers for their brilliance.

Following are excerpts from the post-match press conference.

Q: Angelo, bad luck, but great performance by the bowlers. Don’t you think it took, Malinga a little later on before getting two overs to Thisara and Shaminda, don’t you think you should have brought in Malinga before that?

A: Not really. We still had about 30 to 40 runs to play with. We just thought that they would have taken the power play a bit later, so I just had Lasith Malinga in my tank. But, yeah, we can’t really say yes or no, but that’s the way it is. Unfortunately, we couldn’t pull it through in the end.

Q: How disappointed were you by some of the shots that were played?

A: Not really; we could have toughened up a little bit more. I thought we could have had about 30, 40 runs. It will be in a different 30, but I thought the bowlers were absolutely brilliant, backed up by fielding.

Q: Lasith is one of those cricketers at home who gets his motions questioned the most. But today he came out and played like that; what do you have to say about that?

A: Yeah, that shows what kind of character he has. I mean, he’s such a tough guy mentally and physically, and he knows exactly what to do in these situations. He’s so professional. He knows about his stuff. He’s a premium bowler and you’ve got to accept it. Whatever has been done, he’s our main bowler, so he’s dealing with runs again and hats off to him.

Q: Dilshan couldn’t do as well with the bat today, but he seems to find ways of contributing no matter. In all cricket, he was fielding and bowling today as well.

A: Yeah, except for a couple of guys, everyone couldn’t really do with the bat, to be honest. I thought I kind of misread the wicket. But, yeah, I thought it might get slower and slower as the game progresses, but it kind of dried up a little bit and was a bit easier, slightly easier than the first session. But, yeah, once again, Dilshan bowled. He did a very good job. We didn’t have to play another 300 because of Dilshan. So he’s such a wonderful team mate and guy to have on the team.

Q: The wicket of Kane Williamson seemed to be the one that sort of sparked you and fired you up. Could you talk about that? You took about three wickets in about eight balls in that little passage.

A: Yeah, definitely, we didn’t have much runs to play with, so we just had to go for the kill. The bowlers responded brilliantly. Shaminda Eranga bowled brilliantly and Malinga once again did a fantastic job, and all the spinners, whoever who bowled today was absolutely brilliant, backed up by fielding. So it was an encouraging performance and a boosting performance for the whole team.

 Q: It was your first match in a really high pressure situation as Captain, were you running the show or leaning on advice from some of the older hands on the team?

A: Obviously, I got a lot of support and advice from all the seniors. Special thanks to them. They were throwing their ideas on the table, and I just had to pick and choose. Yeah, lot of support from all the players.

Q: You had a couple of batting sessions in England and the last ones have shown fragility with their batting. Did you think that perhaps if you could get few of these on a roll that with the batting side you could step up?

A: Absolutely. We were talking about getting wickets early on and try to push them on the back foot, which we exactly did. We just had to take a few more wickets to be in the game, and we did them exactly. So, yeah, they are a very hard team to beat, but I thought we played some really good cricket today.

Q: There were a couple of umpiring decisions that went against you. To what extent do you think they had an impact on the results?

A: Obviously that decision was very crucial and it was pretty obvious that it was out. You know, the luck streams both ways and it’s just one of those days that we didn’t have the decision come our way. But it changed the whole finale of the game. It would have been all over.



Q: Can you tell us about your extended discussion with Tim Southee after that which went on for quite a while. Could you give us some insight into what was going on there?

A: It was just the heat of the moment. It was all good. We’re good friends on and off the field, but it was one of those things that came up on the heat. So it was all good.