Monday, 13 January 2014 00:00
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Winning Captain Angelo Mathews: “It is the beauty of Test cricket. We have to keep fighting despite the situation. The bowlers did really well and the batsmen came to the party to set up this win. The younger guys have performed exceptionally well and Mahela showed his class as well. I’m very happy for him.
(On how he has grown as a player since the Abu Dhabi Test) “I’m still learning, day by day with the help of the seniors and the team-mates. It’s wonderful to have them and perform day in day out. It was a collective effort, I thought the seamers were brilliant and Herath did a good holding job so it was a very good effort.”
Pakistan Captain Misbah-ul-Haq: “There was a lot of seam movement on the first day and the Sri Lankans were very disciplined with both bat and ball and that’s why they won. Kaushal Silva was very good and disciplined. He played the seamers very well, left balls outside off and he did very well against Saeed Ajmal as well.
“They’ve been playing him for a long time now and the pitch wasn’t giving too much help. Both spinners struggled. We need a bit of time, the youngsters need to learn to do their basics right especially in Tests and try and wait for the bad ball and that’s what they did better. The lower order did really well, Sarfraz and Bhatti’s innings was very crucial. The pitch was flat and we should have scored more than 400 in the second innings.”
Man of the Match is Mahela Jayawardene: “Had a bad thing, had an operation there so hoped nothing serious had happened. Obviously the hand dictated the way I batted and the match situation as well, but the bowlers did really well to limit the Pakistan batting.
“I had to make sure I adjusted and I bated through the innings. Once you bat through there was runs for the taking and runs on the board is crucial in the first innings. Hats off to Kaushal Silva as well, he played really well. It’s good to play with this bunch of boys and we have one more Test to go so hope we do well in Sharjah as well.”
