Our top order batting failure resulted in defeat, says Dhananjaya
“We are a much better team than we have shown,” said Sri Lanka skipper Dhananjaya de Silva after Sri Lanka’s disappointing loss against England in the second Test match at Lord’s. England sealed a 190-run win over Sri Lanka in the second Test match. With the victory, England took a 2-0 lead. Sri Lanka succumbed to defeat at Lord’s, for the first time since 1991 and they’ surrendered the series too with one match to spare. Overall Sri Lanka failed to impress with the bat especially in the first innings. However individual performances of Asitha Fernando the first five-wicket haul since 1991 at Lords and Milan Ratnayake’s approach as a late order batsman were exceptional in both matches. But the top order failure was the key factor. Dimuth Karunaratne was able to get a century while Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya got fifties but none of them were able to reach a century and these are the issues for Sri Lanka.
Skipper Dhananjaya said that our top batting order was struggling. We had two days to bat. The message was to bat long. England always put pressure on us with their batting, we controlled a bit but that’s not good enough to win a Test match in England. I could have batted first but our top order was struggling, we wanted to see what the pitch is going to do and bat second, that didn’t work, he said.
Sri Lanka had their moments in the game especially when they dismissed England top order cheaply, but then the tail hurt them. Gus Atkinston the paceman made his maiden century and experienced Joe Root used his experience very well to get runs to build up innings.
Skipper Dhananjaya also highly appreciated Kamindu Menids. He also said that the allrounder Mendis displayed a stunning performance except for in the second innings of this match out for only 4 runs. He’s been awesome in every innings except the last innings here.
Kamindu Mendis did well in Sri Lanka’s first innings, he scored 74 runs from 120 balls at a strike rate of 61.67. During his time at the crease, the left-handed batter smashed 8 fours and 3 sixes but unfortunately he couldn’t get support from other end.
Sri Lanka are playing a Test series in England after eight years and Dhananjaya felt that it was too much of a gap, “The gap is too much, more you play here you adapt well to conditions. We don’t have many players playing county cricket which is a big drawback.
England captain Ollie Pope said a good win and some special individual performances from Gus Atkinson and Joe Root. You want to lead from the front with the bat but we’re 2-0 up in the series. I haven’t contributed in the way I’d have liked but I’d still take that every day of the week.
Joe Root gave us a big lead. Reviews aren’t quite going my way but I’d rather use them. Massive contributions from Gus and Potts, an extra 120 runs gives you a really good position, those runs are a bonus. On why they did not force Sri Lanka to follow on Pope said we knew the pitch was getting worse, but more important to give bowlers time off their feet. We knew how important the new ball was, they get pretty soft after 30 overs said England skipper