We wanted to gain a psychological advantage - Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lanka captain, has said that he made a surprise declaration in the second innings to try and get the psychological advantage over West Indies in the drawn second Test at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

"We had to try and get a couple of wickets back especially we wanted to target [Chris] Gayle to see if we could get him out early," Sangakkara said. "[Tillakaratne] Dilshan bowled a beautiful spell with the new ball and it was a great wicket in the end for us."

Gayle, who made a massive 333 in the first Test at Galle, was dismissed for 30 and three in this Test. Sri Lanka also grabbed the wicket of the other opener, Adrian Barath, for eight as West Indies struggled to 12-2 before the match was called off with 11 overs remaining.

Sangakkara was confident that had the match gone its full distance, his spinners would have made life difficult for the West Indian batsmen. "It would have been great to see our spinners working on it. We hardly played two-and-a-half-days cricket on this wicket and it's almost turning square."

One of the positives to come out of the Test was the discipline the Sri Lanka bowlers showed in their lines and lengths. "The fast bowlers bowled tighter lines and executed the game plans a lot better in this Test match. It doesn't matter whether you have the most talented players in the world its finally you've got to go out there and stick to those basic lines and lengths.

"Any fast bowler in the world for 100 years has concentrated on line and length and any good ball is a good ball to any batsman. Those are things you've got to keep working on, not try to bowl magic deliveries, but good old fashioned line and length."