Misbah: We were focused on our game

Sharjah: Pakistan skipper Misbah Ul Haq attributed his team's success in the series to focusing on the game despite the unfortunate incidents that happened in England where three players were sentenced to jail after being found guilty of spot-fixing.

"We were not thinking of anything that happened outside. We were focused on our cricket, on each game and on our game plan. It was important to be focused against a team like Sri Lanka. We have been facing these problems for a-year-and-a-half now but I think that it was good that everybody focused on their performance."

When asked whether his players discussed the episode, Haq said: "We are here to play cricket. Of course, sometimes we did talk about that but nobody was getting into it and focused on the work at hand as we wanted to do well."

Poor start blamed

Sri Lanka skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan attributed his team's series defeat to a poor start in the first two Test matches. "In the first two Test matches we did not get a good start and that is why we lost the series 1-0. In this Test match we got over 400 runs in first innings and I am happy that after losing the second Test, my boys fought hard to try and win this match and try and draw the series."

Dilshan believes that his team could have won the Sharjah Test match had rain not upset their plans. "It was disappointing as due to rain we could not play the first session. If we had played the full day then the result would have been different. Moreover the injury to our pacer Dammika Prasad was a big blow.

"He is the main guy in our bowling attack; unfortunately he got injured. We had got early wickets in the first innings but with one bowler down it was very difficult. Still we bowled really well to restrict them to 300 runs," he added.

Haq justified his decision not to go for the target set by Sri Lanka to win the match. "The ball was bouncing and they were bowling really well and our lower order was not in touch. So we revised our plan to go for the runs."

Haq is disappointed on not winning the series 2-0 after coming so close to victory in Abu Dhabi. "Victory is always important but there is also a sense of disappointment not to have won 2-0 because of one bad fielding session in Abu Dhabi.

"We were on the verge of victory. Kumar Sangakkara played brilliantly or we could have won but still a series win against Sri Lanka is good and we have picked a lot of positives from this match which will help us in the one-day series," said Haq.

Meanwhile, Dilshan is eyeing a series win in the one-dayers scheduled to start from November 11. "We are carrying a lot of positives from this match to the one-day series. Our bowling unit is really experienced with Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando back in the team.

"They have played for the last ten years for Sri Lanka and our batting unit is good and if Kumar Sangakkara can carry his form into the one-day series we have a better chance to win the series here," said Dilshan confidently.