Agency, Galle :
After clinching a stunning 63-run win over India in the first Test here on Saturday, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews is in no mood to lift the foot off the pedal, promising to go for the kill in the second Test starting August 20 in Colombo.
Rangana Herath picked up seven wickets to power Sri Lanka to a spectacular comeback win by 63 runs on the fourth day of the opening Test, stunning India who at one stage appeared clear winners after taking a 192-run lead.
But thanks to Herath’s spin magic and a terrific century by Dinesh Chandimal (162*) on day three that helped the hosts set a tricky target of 176 for India.
“It was a great turnaround. We were down and out for the first three and a half days. With Chandi’s innings, it gave us some sort of life to come back into the game. We batted really poorly in the first innings and really didn’t give ourselves or our bowlers a chance to bowl well, [but] all the bowlers bowled their hearts out.”
But things changed dramatically for the Lankan bowlers in the second innings, where Tharindu Kaushal and Herath combined to take all 10 wickets.
“Second innings was amazing. Even Nuwan Pradeep’s spell in the morning created a lot of pressure. It was easy for Rangana Herath and also Kaushal to come and bowl. I thought it was a great team effort. No one really would have given us a chance to win this game, and I thought it was a brilliant team effort,” the Sri Lankan captain said.
Sri Lanka were tottering at 95 for 5 on Day 3 after conceding a first-innings lead of 192 but Chandimal’s unbeaten century allowed them to stage a fightback.
“To be honest, it was not an easy wicket to bat on. Even us in the first innings – we played poorly. We were not positive enough. We kept losing wickets. We didn’t use our feet. When it came to the second innings, we had nothing to lose to be honest. They had a 192-run lead and we had to surpass it and get a good sort of lead. We had to be positive and take those chances. All the batters batted brilliantly,” Mathews said.
Sri Lanka, who lost their last Test series to Pakistan, put immense pressure on India with tight bowling and some magnificent catches to turn the game in their favour.
Offspinner Kaushal, who took five wickets in the first innings, provided superb support to Herath by picking up three more in the second innings.
Lauding the efforts of the spinners, Mathews said, “Rangana Herath and Kaushal won us the game by themselves in he second innings. It’s a win that everyone in the team participated in. I’m thankful to the whole team”.
Herath, who went wicketless in the first innings, struck with his first ball of the day, sending nightwatchman Ishant Sharma out leg before for 10 runs. The left-armer also took the wickets of Rohit Sharma (4), Wriddhiman Saha (2), Harbhajan Singh (1) and Ravichandran Ashwin (3), while Kaushal picked up both the first-innings centurions Virat Kohli (3) and Dhawan (28).
