We still have a chance of turning the tables: Thirimanne

Lahiru Thirimanne, whose second Test century on the fourth day of the first Test left England chasing 74 for victory, is of the view that if Sri Lanka can capture one or two early wickets in the morning of the fifth and final day today, they have a chance of pulling it off.

England finished the fourth day on 38-3, still requiring 36 to win with seven second innings wickets in hand on a turning and bouncing Galle pitch.

“The way we batted on the first day, we handed England the advantage. We later realised that the majority of our dismissals had nothing to do with the pitch but because of the bad shots we played. In the second innings, we decided to bat with responsibility. It was not easy to bat on the wicket. We planned to set them a target of 150 but we couldn’t come close to that target,” said Thirimanne. “On the fifth day, if a wicket or two goes early, the rest of their batsmen are all-rounders. You can never say what will happen after that because cricket is a very funny game. It was at Galle that we were behind India for most of the Test but bounced back to bowl them out for around 120 or so, and win,” he said.

Thirimanne said that he was elated when he finally reached three figures after a lapse of eight years.

“It was a happy moment because I didn’t score many runs in the recent Test matches, but I knew that I was in good touch after the Wanderers Test. I thought that I had batted well, and I needed to convert it into a big score. Today, I managed to do that.”

“It was really difficult to bat on that wicket but that’s how the Galle pitch behaves on day four. Angelo (Mathews) and I thought that we needed to score runs as well as rotate the strike and keep building up the partnership because at the end of the day, they bowled some bad balls also. That’s how we scored the runs. We needed to wait for the bad balls,” he said.

Jack Leach, who took his second five-for in his career, said that getting those wickets was not easy and it was hard work on a slow turning pitch.

“I think I needed to quicken my pace a bit and pitch in one area because otherwise, the batsmen were able to get onto the back foot and score,” said Leach.

On the prospects on the final day, Leach said: “We knew against those Sri Lankan spinners, it is always going to be a tricky period but I think we consolidated very well. Dan (Lawrence) played nicely. I think we can come back tomorrow and get the remaining runs.” (ST)