Sri Lanka put on a good show in the first Test match against England before the hosts sealed the win by 5 wickets courtesy of a gritty knock by Joe Root. But, Dinesh Chandimal was ‘over the moon’ with the performance of the team as well. In unfamiliar conditions and after losing quick wickets on Day 1, he credited his teammates for the resilience they showed. He also praised Milan Rathnayake and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva for playing well to score 236, in the first innings.
‘We are over the moon as a team, not for the result but the way we played in this game is unbelievable. In the first half an hour on the first day, we lost three wickets. Milan [Rathnayake] and Dhananjaya batted brilliantly and took us through the game. When we come to the bowling, Asitha and Prabath have done a tremendous job throughout the innings. So we have a lot of positive stuff so I’m sure we can give a good fight again at Lord’s and I’m sure we can win a game here before we go back to Sri Lanka,” he said.
However, Dinesh Chandimal, who scored 79, felt the game was probably lost as they fell short by 40-50 runs in the second innings as well. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, lost their last four wickets for merely 19 runs, and he mentioned that the tail-enders should try to stick around for longer time as well.
“We really fought back as a team. We were short of 40-50 runs but every time we are telling this after losing the game, we have to learn that and especially our tailenders didn’t contribute that well. If they could hang in there for 10-15 overs, we could have got those runs so unfortunately it didn’t click,” he again stated.
“He is unbelievable. First tour to England with the national team, in the first game scoring a century. It’s a wonderful thing to do, he is a world class player as far as I’m concerned. I took two tours to make a hundred in England but he has done that very easily. He is a fine player, a player like him, if he can come and play in county cricket for one or two years, it will be really good for him, for his future. The positive mindset (on his approach). When I had a chat with him when he came for lunch, I asked him, what is the secret and he said that he is in a positive mind. He is a player like that and it is really good for the team,” Dinesh Chandimal concluded.
England and Sri Lanka will play the next Test match at Lord’s from August 29 as well.
