“We were outplayed in the first two days” – Mahela

By Dilanka MANNAKKARA

“We didn’t put enough pressure on the England bowlers and allowed them to dominate us”said Mahela Jayawardene after losing the second test match to England by 8 wickets at the post match press conference held at the P. Sara stadium.”

The English bowlers bowled pretty well,especially Swann and Anderson and we made a lot of mistakes in this game plus Pietersen batted aggressively and changed the entire complexion of the game”.

Mahela also mentioned that Swann is one of the best spinners he has ever faced and Swann capitalized on the track which proved to be a minefield for the spinners.

“We were outplayed in the first two days and it was very tough to comeback again although we fought hard afterwards” said Mahela.

He was also of the view that the Hotspot was mandatory for the UDRS system and said that UDRS has advantages and disadvantages.

Mahela also mentioned that Rangana Herath has been depended on most occasions and that they have to ease the pressure on him.” Rangana has bowled very well but he is being carrying the entire bowling attack and we need to find new spinners to support him”.

Lahiru Thirimanne hasn’t been living up to expectations at all and has been extremely poor this series. His last nine innings account to just 90 runs. Mahela commenting on Thirimanne’s form said that “we wanted to give him a consistent run,but now that we have a break and the next test match is in about eight weeks time, we need to discuss with the selectors as to with whom we should go forward.