Sri Lanka didn't expect to lose, skipper Mathews still supportive of selectors' decisions

Pakistan emerged in excellent form and flattened Sri Lanka

Praise for Pakistan’s record chase has been ample after the spectacular match, where Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets. But what about the other side? According to ESPNcricinfo, Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lankan captain, admitted that they did not think that they would lose after lunch on day 4. Mathews played well and was instrumental in bringing up Sri Lanka’s score to a grand total of 313 in the third innings.

The pair that caused major damage to Sri Lanka was Younis Khan and Shah Masood, who knocked off 242 in 66.4 overs. Tharindu Kaushal gave rise to figures of 1 for 153 from 31 overs.

I actually thought after we made 376 that we were sitting pretty," Mathews said. "This will definitely take a lot of time to digest, this defeat. We never expected this sort of performance from our team as well as the Pakistanis. We obviously played three seamers because there was a little grass in the pitch and we had to go with three [of them]. But then on the fourth and fifth day in Sri Lanka, you can't expect a lot of help from the wicket for the seamers. Unfortunately, Tharindu Kaushal didn't bowl that well and we couldn't put the pressure on them. We fought really hard to get to 376 and we never thought we would lose from there."

To be fair, Pakistan had only made 215 in the first innings, and no one imagined that Pakistan would break records and excel this well.

"The ball didn't turn that much in the last couple of days," Mathews said. "It turned a little bit in patches. It turned in the third session yesterday and then settled down. In the first couple of sessions of their innings, it barely turned. For the seamers, there was no hope at all. They bowled their hearts out. Hats off to them, they've been brilliant throughout the series. I thought Dhammika Prasad was brilliant, as were Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal. Even Dushmantha Chameera was excellent in the last game. I thought there was no help from the wicket.

Though the pitch had flattened by the last two days of the Test, Sri Lanka’s attack was not entirely disciplined, and this remained the main reason for them not being able to mount the defense that they should have. "But you can't really blame that when you've got 376 to get them all out. Kaushal has played a lot of matches in A team cricket, which is why we chose him. But we need to think about the pressure of being the only spinner. He's not an experienced Test bowler”, Mathews said as reported by ESPNcricinfo.

Rangana Herath’s omission from the squad proved to be a costly mistake for the Sri Lankan side in the fourth innings.Herath had taken only two wickets in three innings in the first two Tests. "It was a tough call to leave him out and it was just a tactical decision because he is our No. 1 bowler. Unfortunately, we had to leave him out because they [Pakistan] were playing Rangana really well in the first couple of matches and Kaushal was troubling them in the second Test. We thought that's the way to go in this particular Test. Rangana is our top spinner still."

While Rangana was left out for the first time since 2010, two other senior players were recalled. Upul Tharanga came back after a year’s break, and Jehan Mubarak came back after having played his last match in 2007. Though none of them made a key contribution in the match, the skipper was supportive of them."Upul and Jehan are older cricketers with a bit of experience.

Even if they haven't played many Tests, they have played a lot of domestic cricket. In the second innings they dealt with the pressure they [Pakistan] put us under well. They didn't go past 50, but the partnerships they put up helped us get to 376. Both of them are playing a Test after a long time. They gave their best to the team according to the context of the game."

Lahiru Thirumanne was another cricketer who did not perform as well as the selectors would have hoped. He made 44 from six innings, at an average of 18.

Mathews backed him up by saying, "It does happen as a cricketer. You do run into poor form," Mathews said. "We are backing Thirimanne because we know that he is a very good player. We can't really expect the guys to be Kumar Sangakkara's and Mahela Jayawardene's right now because the guys are still finding their way in Test cricket. A lot of them haven't played much Test cricket. When a batsman is having a rough time you've got to deal with it carefully. You can't blame it on him. But I think he will definitely take responsibility in the future.

"Over 15 years we've seen Mahela and Kumar play, but we can't measure the young players on their scale. In the past years, if one misses out, the other scores a hundred most of the time. We have to be patient with this side. We're all learning."