Sri Lanka v India 2017: We Need To Improve In All Three Departments, Rangana Herath
Jul 29, 2017 at 5:43 PM
India bundled out hosts Sri Lanka for a mere 245 runs in the fourth innings to notch up a massive victory by a margin of 304 runs in the first Test at the Galle International Stadium. The hosts never looked in the game right from day one and eventually handed over an easy 1-0 lead in the three match series.
It would be a Test match which the Lankans wouldn’t want to keep in their memories for long as they looked completely hapless in their approach and severely hurt by the injury setback.
Speaking at the post-match conference, skipper Rangana Herath stressed the importance of improving in all three departments after showing the inability to compete despite fairly easy playing conditions.
“It was a good wicket to bat. We need to improve in all three departments. Toss didn’t play a major role in this game. All credit to India, they outplayed us. Losing Asela is a great loss for us. But we want to improve with the batting, bowling and fielding. We need to have some kind of improvement in the future as well.
The match was misery filled game for Sri Lanka. Apart from failing to stay on par with the Indians in term so class and quality, they also were dented by the loss of a couple of important players. In the fourth innings, Sri Lanka had only 9 wickets to bat with while chasing the mammoth target. This was just an advancement of the injury problem that made all-rounder Aseala Gunaratne unavailable in the first innings where Sri Lanka came out to bat one man down.
The all-rounder suffered a broken thumb in the opening day’s play and was later ruled out of the entire series. On day three, skipper Rangana Herath picked up an injury on the same index finger which he operated back in 2012.
“It’s getting better. There was a fracture on the same finger previously and I got hurt again, but there is no fracture this time. Should get better in a few days.”