Mathews pleased with AMAZING turnaround
SA’ADI THAWFEEQ reporting from Galle
GALLE: Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews gave a sigh of relief after
his team had beaten Australia by 229 runs in the second Test at Galle to
take a winning 2-0 lead in the three-match series yesterday.
“It feels great. The way we played in the last two games it was
brilliant. We were pretty clinical in the second Test especially,” said
Mathews at the post-match press conference.
“Especially after England we were down and out. We were struggling
with our confidence. We had to work really hard in all three aspects of
our game. It’s very pleasing to see a massive turnaround. “When things
go well it all happens for the best. I thought we fielded extremely well
in the last two games. We had to be scrappy when it comes to batting.
When you play in extreme conditions you have to try and find a way to
get runs. It wasn’t easy. Mitchell Starc – you should give credit to him
the way he bowled on this pitch. The flat track didn’t offer any sort of
help for the seamers but he bowled his heart out.” Mathews said that he
was under some pressure when he went out for the toss.“The first hurdle
was to win the toss and then get a good score on the board because the
wicket was always going to get worse.
“Once again it was a special performance by Kusal Mendis – getting us
to 281. Special mention to Dilruwan (Perera) after having a quiet first
Test he backed his potential and came back really hard. He was one
bowler whothe Australians found it really hard to score off, especially
on this track,” said Mathews.
With a winning spin trio of Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and
Lakshan Sandakan, the Lankan captain spoke of going for a clean sweep in
theseries. “It’s never easy when you’re facing good quality spin on a
turning track.We’ve got good quality spinners in Herath, Dilruwan and
Sandakan. They are experienced campaigners and they know exactly how to
bowl on these types of wickets,” said Mathews. “Sometimes when we go
overseas we struggle as well. We still want to win 3-0. We want to go
for it in Colombo.
The Australians look a bit lost when it comes to facing our spinners.
They have bowled extremely well. They found it a bit hard to score off
our spinners.”When questioned whether he was disappointed with the
opposition put up by a team like Australia, Mathews replied, “To be the
no. 1 team you’ve got to play consistent cricket whether at home or
away. They’ve played on spinning tracks – they’ve just been to the West
Indies.
They’ve played a couple of Test matches there and also a one-day
series. They are used to spinning conditions, but it’s just that we
played better cricket than them.” |