Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne admitted that his team’s batting didn’t capitalize in the Indian conditions against a formidable bowling line-up.
Karunaratne was satisfied with the bowling performance but feels the batting unit let the team down. Sri Lankan bowlers had done well to skittle out India for 252 runs in the first innings of the second Test match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
But the Island nation could only manage 109 runs in the first innings to give away a lead of 143 runs. However, Sri Lanka came with a better batting performance in the second innings as they scored 208 runs. Dimuth Karunaratne scored a fine hundred on a difficult pitch whereas Kusal Mendis also scored a fine fifty. But apart from these two batters, none of the Sri Lankan batters could get going in the second innings.
In fact, Sri Lanka had also failed to cross the 200-run mark in both of their innings in the first Test match at Mohali, where the pitch was good for batting. Moreover, Sri Lanka batting averaged 15.60 in the two-match series, which is their second-lowest in Test cricket in the two-match series.
Indian spinners – Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja breathed down the neck of the Sri Lankan batters. Furthermore, Jasprit Bumrah took eight wickets in the second Test match as he was on fire.
Dimuth Karunaratne said in the post-match presentation, “I would have been more happier if we had won, but it was a tough one, we batted under lights and it was tough. But I have worked hard on my batting. We have a good team, the batting didn’t capitalize on these conditions, the bowling was good, but we kept bowling loose deliveries every now and then, that’s what we need to work on going further. There have been several youngsters coming up and this was an experience for them. It has been special playing alongside Lakmal and I wish him well for the upcoming county season.”
Sri Lanka just could not get going with the bat against a potent Indian bowling line-up and they will look to bounce back stronger. There is still work to be done by their batting unit and they will hopefully grow in confidence with more experience.
