The first test at Leeds provided straight forward answers to a lot of questions. First and foremost, it made it absolutely clear that England was a force to reckon with in conditions assisting them. But the most vital aspect coming to the fore was Sri Lanka’s incompetent performance, which leaves plenty to ponder. Sri Lanka batted like a completely disgruntled unit, as the game was wrapped up within three days.
Against the likes of Anderson and Stuart Broad, the top order needs to dig in and stick in the middle. But the Sri Lankan top order played some rash strokes and gifted their wickets away, leading to the utter embarrassment of the side. If Sri Lanka continues to play in the same way, one can expect bigger thrashings for them in the games to follow.
Post the loss, skipper Angelo Mathews said that he was simply humiliated by his side’s performance. “It was quite an embarrassing defeat,” said Mathews. “It was pure poor batting and the execution. You have to be really skillful to bat against these guys, especially in these conditions. Anderson once again showed his class. Stuart Broad was brilliant as well. One or two of our guys needed to raise our hands and put up a good score, particularly in the first innings. We failed to do that in the first innings, and once again in the second innings, so that’s a pretty obvious reason for our defeat.”
Mathews credited the likes of Jonny Bairstow and Alex Hales for a defining stand in the first innings. “We got five wickets for 80 runs, and we let them off the hook,” Mathews said. “We dropped at a couple of catches. Jonny Bairstow batted brilliantly – credit should go to him and Alex Hales. They got them to a decent score on this wicket and it was up to us as batters to get a decent score as well. But once you get 90-odd runs, it is very a difficult road going into the second and third days. It was very tough. We have good enough batting to pass 300, but we made it very tough for ourselves.”
“We have done it in the past. We have a couple of days to regroup, think about our strategy, train really hard and come back hard. All we’ve got to do is change our mindset. If you believe you can do it. Yes, it was a humiliating defeat. It was embarrassing. But if you stick to our plans in the second game we could turn the tables around,” he added.