Defeat will take a lot of time to digest says Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews

Defeat will take a lot of time to digest says Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews: At lunch on day 4, Sri Lanka were well set to wrap up the match and lift the series trophy, but it wasn’t to be as they were swindled by the sudden flattening out of the pitch and a spirited showing by Pakistan. Mathews had been instrumental in Sri Lanka’s third-innings 313, which set up a lead of 376. However, Pakistan chased down this target with ease, inside four sessions of batting.

Sri Lanka’s seamers had claimed two early wickets in the Pakistan chase, but could not separate Younis Khan and Shan Masood for 66.4 overs, during which the pair added 242. The Sri Lankan skipper in the post match media interaction said, “I actually thought after we made 376 that we were sitting pretty,”

“This will definitely take a lot of time to digest, this defeat. We never expected this sort of performance from our team as well as the Pakistanis. We obviously played three seamers because there was a little grass in the pitch and we had to go with three [of them]. But then on the fourth and fifth day in Sri Lanka, you can’t expect a lot of help from the wicket for the seamers. Unfortunately, Tharindu Kaushal didn’t bowl that well and we couldn’t put the pressure on them. We fought really hard to get to 376 and we never thought we would lose from there.”

Mathews sounded clearly shattered and disappointed as he rued various reasons for the defeat. He added, “The ball didn’t turn that much in the last couple of days,” Mathews said.

“It turned a little bit in patches. It turned in the third session yesterday and then settled down. In the first couple of sessions of their innings, it barely turned. For the seamers, there was no hope at all. They bowled their hearts out. Hats off to them, they’ve been brilliant throughout the series. I thought Dhammika Prasad was brilliant, as were Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal. Even Dushmantha Chameera was excellent in the last game. I thought there was no help from the wicket.

“But you can’t really blame that when you’ve got 376 to get them all out. Kaushal has played a lot of matches in A team cricket, which is why we chose him. But we need to think about the pressure of being the only spinner. He’s not an experienced Test bowler.” Mathews said.