Captain hails his bowlers

Jayawardene overjoyed after Guyana victory

Last updated: 27th March 2008

Sri Lanka mahela jayawardene v West Indies March 2008

Jayawardene: Delighted

We gave them a target thinking this is a target they could chase especially since they have shot-makers.

Mahela Jayawardene
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Mahela Jayawardene paid tribute to his bowling unit after claiming Sri Lanka's first ever Test win in the Caribbean.

The tourists set Chris Gayle's side a target of 437 for victory on a docile Guyana National Stadium pitch.

Despite half-centuries for Dwayne Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Gayle, which had the captain worried at one stage, Sri Lanka won by 121 runs in the end.

Daren Powell was the last man to go, chipping a mistimed drive off Chaminda Vaas up for Muttiah Muralitharan to catch and Jaywardene revealed the significance of the result after the match.

Challenge

"We had a challenge when we came and that was to win a Test match in the West Indies and we have achieved that," he said.

"We played hard and a lot of guys contributed. It was an amazing effort from Chaminda, and our quicks took 13 wickets in the Test, so a lot of credit has to go to them. Muttiah Muralitharan bowled his heart out, and overall it was a very good team effort.

"We gave them a target thinking this is a target they could chase especially since they have shot-makers.

"If Bravo and Sarwan had batted until about tea time, it would have been a different story. We would have struggled, but we managed to get Bravo before lunch, and then Sarwan before tea which were two crucial wickets, and in between we got Shivnarine Chanderpaul which was an important wicket for us."

Sri Lanka have the opportunity to wrap up a first Test series victory in the Caribbean at the Queen's Park Oval in the Trinidad capital of Port of Spain on April 3.