I should have stayed a little longer – Karunaratne

At the end of the day centurion Dimuth Karunaratne told the press “Mustafizur took the game away from us. He reverse swung the ball well. He was bowling around the wicket for right-handers and the angle he was creating was difficult for the batsmen. We knew what he was doing and we had a plan to play the ball that was coming in and leave the ball that was going away. He bowls a maximum of five overs in a spell and we should have played that out. We panicked. We didn’t plan things out well. The wicket was set and that perhaps gave us a false sense of security to go for runs instead of seeing off that period.”

The commenting on his knock Karunaratne said “I am glad I got 126 here. I was trying to occupy one end more than scoring runs. Had I stayed for a bit longer, it would have been vital. Their mindset would have been down then. But the ball went outside from the rough.

“There was reverse swing. That’s what they were trying to do. It wasn’t easy and we should have been prepared. We should have seen off those couple of overs off.”

Karunaratne added “A batsman takes some time to get set. That creates chances. Dilruwan and Suranga the way they batted it shows that wicket has no demons. Fast bowlers are having some reverse but I would say it is still a good wicket to bat on”.

Then Karunaratne commenting on Sri Lanka’s chances of losing the match said “In Sri Lanka we have won our last six Tests. We have never lost a Test to Bangladesh. It will be a big embarrassment. We are at fault and we need to owe up to the mistake. All are aware of it and I am sure we will come out all guns blazing to save this game.

“We won the toss and batted thinking to pressure on them. There’s nothing much on the wicket, but if a wicket falls, then you mentally fall. If we can get as many as possible then it will be great. Their openers are the key.”