Dubai: Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews attributed his team’s victory in the second Test against Pakistan to his players’ fighting spirit. After recording an emphatic nine-wicket win at the Dubai International Stadium, a delighted Mathews said: “You need to keep fighting. That is what cricket is all about. I thought we did exactly that in the first Test. We managed to draw the first one by hanging on there. This one was a wonderful victory with the help of the whole team.”
Mathews feels that their fast bowlers deserved the credit for the victory. “They (fast bowlers) actually set it up for us. The toss was a bit crucial but I thought you need to bowl in the right areas to get them out. They did exactly that. I thought they were brilliant in the first innings as well as the second innings. Given the conditions they had to put it on the right spot, which they did. To get them all out for 165, I thought it was a tremendous effort. Our batters had to get a good score to put them on the back foot, which they did.”
Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq candidly admitted that his batsmen did not apply themselves. “I think our batsmen should have applied themselves more. In the first innings, there was some seam movement but we played some indisciplined shots and that put us in trouble. From 70 for one, we should have scored more than 165 runs because it was happening in the first session and we survived it but lost wickets in the second session. In the second innings as well, the pitch was very flat and there was not even any turn or help from the fast bowlers. That was a better effort but we still we could have done better than that.”
What pleased Mathews even more was his team coming good despite an adequate lack of match practice. “We haven’t played much Test cricket in the recent past and the last one we played was nine months earlier. There was a bit of roughness in the first couple of days, and I thought we adjusted pretty well by coming back into the game in the first Test. Performing like this in the second Test is very pleasing,” he said.
When Gulf News asked whether Pakistan bowling was looking ineffective, Mathews said: “It’s just that our batters batted brilliantly. They didn’t want to throw their wickets away and kept fighting through those little phases and put Pakistan bowlers under pressure. I think we handled them better and that’s probably the result that we got today after fighting.”
