Jayawardene - Batting cost us

Gayle glad to have Sarwan back in West Indies middle order

Last updated: 7th April 2008

Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka

Jayawardene: Praised Sarwan and Chanderpaul

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Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene felt bad batting was to blame for his side's six-wicket defeat to West Indies.

The home side levelled the two-match series in Trinidad, chasing down a target of 253 thanks to a century from Ramnaresh Sarwan.

However, the turning point of the contest came on Saturday when the tourists, trailing by 16 runs, slumped to 99-6 in their second innings.

Although a century from Thilan Samaraweera meant they finished up with 268, Jayawardene felt the top-order collapse was crucial.

Under pressure

"After the first two days, we knew it was going to be a tough battle, it was pretty even," Jayawardene said.

"Then we lost four wickets pretty early in the second innings and that was probably where we went wrong.

"Our openers got out early, we lost wickets to a couple of bad shots and we put ourselves under pressure but then Thilan and Chaminda (Vaas) batted really well and put us in a position where we could win the Test match.

"It gave us an opportunity but we let ourselves down in that first 10-15 overs - we knew on this wicket the harder ball is going to do a bit, we needed to make sure we didn't lose too many up front and then build a platform for our bowlers."

Jayawardene was quick to praise Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who saw the Windies home with an unbeaten 85.

"We would have taken 250 on this wicket, we knew it had a bit of something and we hoped to take four or five wickets early with the new ball - we took three but it wasn't enough, those guys batted really well to take control," he added.

"At three down we thought we had a chance but we knew that those two were the danger players and they batted really well, we had a few half-chances but couldn't get the breakthrough.

"It happens, we played a pretty good Test match, did well, credit to West Indies they played good cricket and came strong in this game and played really good cricket for four days and won the Test match".

Returning hero

West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who was fined fined 70 percent of his match fee for his team's slow over rate, admitted the return of Sarwan to the middle order had been a major boost.

The 27-year-old had been out of action for 10 months through various injuries but came back with a bang in the series against Sri Lanka.

"Missing Sarwan really hurt us and it is good to have him back out there," Gayle said. "He showed how important he is at number three.

"It is good to have him back, he looked the part and I have to give him credit.

"I hope he can build on this and capitalise on his good starts and get those hundreds - big hundreds."