Atapattu - 'We have to minimise our mistakes'

Sri Lanka's coach, John Dyson, had his chin up as he spoke about the team's performance in the first one-dayer. But he felt that the dismissals of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana were a bad setback. "I thought we did a terrific job to restrict them to 262 after their start on what was a good wicket," Dyson said. "It was a great tragedy though to lose both Sanath and Romesh like we did at the start. They're the kind of players you want to hang around for a few overs. We're not too disappointed, though. Mahela and Kumar batted well and so did Dilshan. It's just a shame that the lower order couldn't stay with him any longer."

"We came back well after the initial assault and 250-odd on this track was very gettable," Marvan Atapattu said, sharing Dyson's views about the loss of the openers. "We had a shocking start though and never recovered from that loss. It was a tragedy because we know the firepower that they have. Australia played really well and are a very good side. They did very little wrong and bowled extremely well. We will have to consider our line-up for the next game and make sure we minimise our mistakes."

The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of Sri Lanka Cricket.