Sri Lanka’s batting coach Grant Flower said the bowlers failed to hit the right lengths, but at the same time gave credit to the Bangladesh batsmen for the way they played.

“We thought the wicket would help the seamers a bit more than it did. There was a tiny bit of moisture in the morning. I don’t think we hit our lengths properly to be honest as well as we could have. Also they played very well, you’ve got to give credit to their openers. Tamim (Iqbal) took it to our attack like he does and the other batsman, Shanto, played really well and he is still going. All credit to them,” said Flower summarising the first day’s play.

“The bowlers had their plans, they had good plans for the batsmen but we bowled both sides of the wicket and hence a deep square leg and a deep point, and also the lengths we bowled were inconsistent. I don’t think our bowlers hit the correct lengths. It didn’t turn much, so it didn’t help the spinners either. It’s a very good batting wicket and hopefully when we get our chance to bat we can do the same if not better. I think the wicket might get a bit quicker as it hardens. We thought with the grass there it would do a bit more but it didn’t,” he said.

Questioned why Sri Lanka had veered away from preparing spin tracks to making greener ones, Flower explained: “We wanted to try and help our seamers for once. We’ve come from the Caribbean where it was quite flat; we wanted our seamers to move the ball around but it didn’t prove in the end. The wicket was too good. We played one full time spinner and DDS (Dhananaya de Silva), we didn’t have the best day today. We’ve got a lot of hard work to do.

“Also one of Bangladesh’s strengths is spin bowlers and the way they play spin, they are so used to it in Bangladesh so we were trying to play a seamers wicket, and as the game goes on it turns a bit more historically. They’ve got two good spinners and it’s going to be a good challenge.”

Najmul Hossain Shanto who scored his maiden Test hundred for Bangladesh said that he felt much more relaxed when he was batting and thinking positively helped him score the runs.

“Today I felt much more relaxed when I was batting. I was not thinking about scoring runs, just batting session by session, that is the difference from the batting point of view. The mental thing is very important, and mentally I was thinking positively that I can make runs,” said Shanto, who will resume today unbeaten on 126 with his captain Mominul Haque, with whom he has been associated in a 150-run stand.

“Getting a maiden hundred was a big relief because I didn’t get runs in the last few months, but still I believe I can get runs, today it happened so I am really happy. When I went into bat I told myself to watch the ball and play. If the ball was in my area of strength I just play my shot, and I am not thinking about the pitch or the bowler – only about preserving my wicket,” he said. (ST)

Bangladesh batsmen make a mockery out of Pallekele pitch