Angelo Mathews confident that his bowlers will fightback

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews must have felt the absence of their premier pacer Dhamika Prasad after having a thoughtful view over the green University Oval pitch.

Mathews hoped that his pace trio might be able to make up for the absence of his injured spearhead Dhammika Prasad. But unfortunately for the captain, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal and Dushmantha Chameera got their lines and lengths wrong in the opening session and were plundered by the New Zealand batsmen.

The hosts finished the first day at 408/9 after scoring at a breezy run rate of around four runs an over and eventually bowled Sri Lanka in their second innings for 282 to easily defend the huge target and winning the match by 122 runs. The hammering by the Kiwi batsmen on the first day set up the victory for the team.

In a televised interview he said, “We are a little bit disappointed with the way we went in the first innings with the way we bowled, especially on that wicket. There was a lot of grass on that wicket and after we won the toss I expected a little bit more from the bowlers. But we didn’t land the ball on the right spot and they capitalised on that. With the batting line-up they have if you bowl too loose they will capitalise (and) unfortunately they got off to a flier. In the second innings, we bowled pretty good lines and lengths but it was too late.”

The Kiwis also found the pitch difficult to extract any significant sideways movement or swing through the air and depended on spells of hostile short-pitched bowling to make it uncomfortable for the Lankan batsmen. Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath was targeted several times and he suffered the pain as a result after being struck twice, once on his hand and the other in the head. However, he shook it off and continued to stay at the crease.

“We showed a lot of guts, especially the bowlers in the way they batted in both innings but, unfortunately we couldn’t hang in there,” Mathews added.

The Sri Lankan team is in its transition phase following the retirements of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara and Mathews is confident that his team will improve for the second Test in Hamilton which starts on December 18.

“Yes it is an inexperienced team, not too many guys have played more than 10 Tests, but it’s just a learning curve for us and a mindset thing. We have to go out there and enjoy it,” Matthews ended.

New Zealand v Sri Lanka 1st Test Review: Visitors go down to swing as New Zealand wins it easy