Whatmore predicts hard time for West Indies despite Kandy Hoodoo

Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore believes it will be hard for West Indies to comeback in the second Test starting Wednesday having lost by ten wickets despite scoring 448 in their first innings.

"I think it is going to be harder for a team like West Indies in Kandy although South Africa, England and India have reversed their form in respective series against us," hoped Whatmore after Sri Lanka had won the first Test rather comprehensively by ten wickets at Galle on Saturday.

He admitted that Sri Lanka's record in Kandy was poor, but believes the team will overcome their poor run if they concentrate on the cricket.

"We have to acknowledge that our record in Kandy hasn't been good," he said. "But a cricket match is not won or lost by any hoodoo, voodoo or horoscopes or whatever. But it is won or lost by what you do out in the middle."

There have been a number of reasons for losing in Kandy, but the bottom line is that during occasional sessions we haven't done very well at all. Whilst you can't win a game in that hour or two, you can sure go a long way towards losing it. That's what we have been unfortunately been guilty of."

Whatmore was delighted by the character shown by the Sri Lankans who carried on fighting throughout the Test despite facing a large first innings score.

"In other games, we won pretty convincingly like today, but in a different way," he said. "We batted first and put the pressure on the opposition. The wickets turned more and became unpredictable. This one here, I thought, was a full effort everyday on a better pitch. It's tremendous for the team to know what they can overcome.

"All the batsmen contributed quite nicely and there were one or two who really performed for us. Without those contributions you can't come close to 448. I was very pleased with the boys because chasing a target of 448 is not easy, no matter what conditions, but they stuck to their task for over 200 overs," he said.

"Mahela's was a class innings although he was bitterly disappointed, like the rest of us, that he missed out on a hundred. He really showed his class. Kumar Sangakkara is falling nicely into a pattern of getting a fifty or a hundred in every third innings. We haven't seen the best of Kumar. He's got a long way to go. Early indications are that he's got every chance of being one of the really good players for Sri Lankan cricket.

"Tillakaratne is a veteran, but since getting a hundred against India this year, his confidence has risen as well. He is a pretty solid middle-order player," Whatmore said.

Whatmore said that although Sri Lanka had won four out of their last five Tests they had still a long way to go.

"I think if you are realistic, you have to keep performing like this for a number of years before we can really say that we have turned the corner.

Another fact that is that Sri Lanka can be competitive at home, but not away.

"We are mindful of that, and that's one of the reasons why we are experimenting and playing with some new pace bowlers. The big one is against England next year. In our group of touring players there will be five or six tough medium-pace bowlers who can get out there and compete," he said.