Over the moon with the performance: Dinesh Chandimal despite losing the opening Test against England

Sri Lanka’s experienced wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Chandimal was delighted with the team’s performance despite their five-wicket loss against England at Old Trafford, Manchester. England was expected to roll over the Dhananjaya de Silva’s team but the visitors fought tooth and nail in the series opener.

Chandimal, who unfortunately got a grubber in the first innings, scored a fighting knock of 79 runs in the second dig to help his team post 326 runs on the board.

However, England were able to chase down 205 runs after Joe Root scored a valiant knock of 62 runs to help his team get over the line.

Sri Lanka fought hard throughout the Test match and posted 236 runs on the board in the first innings despite being 113-7 at one stage. Debutant Milan Rathnayake and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva scored 72 and 74 runs respectively to announce their comeback.

‘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.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka also impressed with the ball as Prabath Jayasuriya and Asitha Fernando picked up three and four-fers respectively in the first innings. 

“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.”

Chandimal feels it could have been a different ball game altogether if their tailenders had contributed some runs.

“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.”

The second Test match between England and Sri Lanka will be played at Lord’s, starting August 29.