Series was a good confidence booster for the players: Dimuth

Sri Lanka Captain Dimuth Karunaratne

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne said that the 2-0 series win over Test minnows Ireland was a confidence booster for the players.

“If you take the series there were a lot of positives. Especially in the batting unit there were lots of runs scored which was good for their confidence. Likewise, if you take the bowlers in the first innings Ramesh (Mendis) couldn’t do much but Prabath (Jayasuriya) and the fast bowlers bowled good spells and got wickets for us,” said Karunaratne at the post-match press conference.

“In the second innings we saw Ramesh making a comeback by taking five wickets in the second innings. Overall, it was a good series, almost every player got a confidence boost and we also won both the Tests. What we wanted was whilst winning the matches to boost the players’ confidence. Overall, it was a good series especially for Sri Lanka cricket.”

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s 100th Test win, Karunaratne said: “We don’t think of records, we first plan how we can win and create a path for it. That’s what we discuss inside the dressing room. After we have achieved the result of the match only, we look at other things. As captain of the 100th Test win I am happy, but we have a lot of work to do, not playing a team like Ireland but against strong sides and winning against them.”

“We had to work hard to win this Test because the track was good. It was not the one we normally get at Galle so the bowlers had to work really hard. I see positives inside the team. From here we must move forward and see how we can win a series overseas. That is where as captain I will be happy, not being the captain of the 100th Test win or winning by a big margin. As captain, how you handle your team and winning away series are my targets.”

Explaining the tactics in using Asitha Fernando to bowl bouncers at the Irish batsmen, Karunaratne said: “We use Asitha usually to unsettle the opposition. His yorker and bouncer are the most effective. As the ball was hard, we tried to bounce them out and unsettle them. When we bowled in good areas there was no support for the bowlers, that’s why we tried this ploy and it worked for us. After that the ball started to reverse. Situations arose where I was able to use the fast bowlers differently. Asitha used the assistance he got from the surface and the cross wind to give his maximum to the team.” Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie expressed his disappointment that they could not draw the Test.

“We felt the wicket was good enough to bat out the day. We have to give credit to the way Sri Lanka bowled. The seamer bowled with real accuracy and made it really hostile and their spinners came into the game again. We thought we could have got a draw but I suppose it wasn’t to be. We made Sri Lanka think rather than just bowl with spinners all day and try something else, and the seamer bowled brilliantly. When he returned, he got the ball reversing and it was very skillful bowling.” It was the first time that Ireland had taken a Test match to the fifth day in their short Test career. “There was a little bit of rain around but we went till the middle session of the fifth day and we still believed we could get a draw. We knew it would be very tough to win the game. Taking 20 wickets here would have been very difficult. We have to take some more steps. A lot of the best teams in the world haven’t won Tests so early, it’s going to take time, but we must make sure our players are exposed to the red ball as often as possible,” said Balbirnie.

“We are brought up in Ireland where the wickets usually favour seam bowling but it’s different here. The Kookaburra ball doesn’t do a lot, particularly when it goes soft and when you have high class batters who have amazing records in these conditions. We also had a few injuries in the bowling department but that is not an excuse. We have to find ways to build a bit of depth. The guys tried their hardest. I can’t fault them at all. Whenever we come back here, we will get better over the years.” – (ST)