We are better than this- Herath

Skipper Rangana Herath expressing his disappointment over the crushing defeat in the first Test against India in Galle said they were a better team than there performance showed.

“We are a better team than this,” a visibly upset Herath said. “We certainly are. I felt that it was after a long time a team score 600 runs against us. We should have bowled better. The other point is most of our batsmen got closer to three figures and got out, but whereas the Indian batters made big hundreds. That was a big difference too in the game. That’s an area that we need to work on moving forward.

Chasing a mammoth 550 to win, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 245 runs as India went 1 up in the five-match series. Sri Lanka had only eights batsmen to play as both skipper himself and Asela Gunaratne did not play with injuries.

“Obviously when you lose a game you are disappointed. But having said that, all credit to India for the way they played. They played outstanding cricket in all three departments. They deserve all the credit,”

Herath admitted that a traditionally spin-friendly Galle pitch had no support for the bowlers right through the match.

“I told before the game too that this game will help batsmen a lot. Having said that, I expected the spinners to come into the equation in the fourth or fifth day. But this wicket didn’t have much help for spinners,” Herath who has had a remarkable record here in Galle.

Herath said it was a massive blow to miss the services of allrounder Gunaratne who was ruled out of the series with a fractured figure. He suffered the injury while fielding on day one.

“It was a massive blow for us. He has been scoring lot of runs for us in the last few months. He wasn’t available to bat or bowl and that was a huge blow for us. We managed to play without him and hopefully we will bounce back well in the second Test,” he explained.