We won because we mentally overcame that first Test defeat – Dimuth

Captains Dimuth Karunaratne and Pat Cummins with the Warne-Muralitharan trophy after the series was shared 1-all

Sri Lanka Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne said that his team was able to come back and beat Australia in the second Test at Galle because they were able to mentally overcome the defeat in the first Test.

“It was very tough, the defeat. When that happens in that fashion mentally it becomes very challenging. As a group we overcame that well. The coach was of immense support,” said Karunaratne after his side had beaten Australia by an innings to win the second Test and share the series one-all. 

“We knew why it (the first Test) backfired. It was because of the wicket. Our batting is the strongest and since our bowling is very inexperienced. We knew if we put in a decent total, the bowlers would do well. All the batters played well. Where we got things wrong in the first Test was, we couldn’t get a big total. What I told the boys was that we should get something like 450. Everyone who got set got decent runs. When you have runs on the board you can attack and that made it easier for us.”

Karunaratne said that Dinesh Chandimal’s double century was the innings that turned the match in Sri Lanka’s favour.

“Chandi has been in good form. He brought the form here. Galle is a place where he has done well. I remember a game against India where he helped us to win from nowhere. I told Chandi to come up with a big knock. The last few years he was not very successful. He’s someone with lot of experience. He has got lot of runs this year. Chandi is someone if he gets a start, he will go onto get a big one. I know as we have played a long at the same time. It was one of his best knocks, one was against India, then this one. He showed his experience. When your senior player gives a knock like that as captain it makes things easy for me. Angelo can fail, I can fail, but I know that someone will fire for us. That’s a good sign for the series that’s ahead.”

Australian skipper Pat Cummins said that once Sri Lanka got a good first innings lead it was always going to be tough for them.

“We did really well to hang in there for 170 of the 180 overs, Dinesh batted really well and once they got a decent size lead it was always going to be tough for us. Unfortunately, it started spinning, they bowled well tonight, and you can have those sessions where things move pretty quickly in the subcontinent and unfortunately, we were on the wrong end of it,” said Cummins.

“If we look back at yesterday (Sunday) I think we created 11 or 12 chances, a couple didn’t go our way, a couple we slightly missed. And they batted quite well. the pitch was by no means similar to last week, it was just a really good surface and the ball got soft out there. It was a grind, I thought we did well to keep them under three an over for that long.”

“We turned up knowing it’s a tough place to win series and games over here. So, to come away with a series draw, the same team that won last week, we grinded it out in Pakistan to come through with a series win. It might be a reality check that it’s tough playing away from home, in different conditions to what we’ve grown up playing in. And makes for more learning than after a win.”