Mathews finds positives in 'tremendous' Kusal

Sri Lanka have lost a series at home to India for the first time in 22 years, but on the final day, had a performance to be upbeat about. The hosts were 107 for 5 when Kusal Perera took guard for his second Test innings. He joined Angelo Mathews in a 135-run stand that grew Sri Lanka's hopes of an unlikely win, but was dismissed for 70 from 106 balls.

Kusal had also hit a 55 from 56 alongside the tail in the first innings, making him the second Sri Lanka player to score twin fifties on debut, after Dinesh Chandimal. "I thought Kusal batted positively and grabbed his opportunity," Mathews said. "He looks a tremendous player. In whatever the situation is he wants to be positive. We had discussed a lot about our batting order and we needed someone who will score runs quickly in the middle order. That's why we brought in Kusal at No.7"

Sri Lanka had whittled the lead to below 150, but Kusal's dismissal in the 77th over exposed the tail just before the second new ball was available. A Sri Lanka victory was unlikely all through the innings, but the nature of Kusal's dismissal has provoked some criticism. Kusal had been caught attempting to reverse sweep R Ashwin off a leg-stump line, but Mathews defended the stroke. The reverse-sweep had also been a productive stroke for Chandimal, in his match-turning innings in Galle.

"Kusal was playing positive and I didn't want to tell him to change his game," Mathews said. "Regardless of the situation he was positive and that's the approach you should have all the time. If Kusal and I had played for a bit longer we could have had a chance. We required less than 150 at that point and the ball was quite old as well. We wanted to just play positively and look for runs."

Kusal also kept wickets in this match, though he was far less convincing in that role, than he was with the bat. He dropped a straightforward catch off Virat Kohli on the first morning, and also missed a stumping off Stuart Binny on the fourth afternoon. His entry into the XI had relieved Chandimal of the keeping gloves.

"We wanted Chandimal to bat at No.4," Mathews said, explaining the decision to change wicketkeepers. "He was batting well and it was a good opportunity for him to bat up the order. It would have been tough for him to keep wickets and bat at No.4, especially after keeping for 100-150 overs - that too in this humidity.

"Yes, Kusal missed two chances, but overall he had a good Test Match. We are confident he will do a good job. There's not a lot of difference between the two wicketkeepers. Maybe he was a bit nervous making his debut. We all have those fears early on in our careers."

Mathews said Sri Lanka could have chased with more intent, had the top order not folded meekly in the fourth innings. Sri Lanka had been 3 for 21, then 4 for 74 in pursuit of the 386 required to win. In five of the six innings this series, they lost five wickets for less than 110 runs. They were particularly poor in the first innings of this match, in which Sri Lanka found themselves struggling at 47 for 6.

"The cause for our defeat is our first-innings batting." Mathews said. "After winning a crucial toss and putting them in, the bowlers bowled well. They have done a really good job throughout both series. The problem is with our batting.

"We were backing the batsmen thinking that they will fire at some point. We have about two to three weeks to address these issues and come up with solutions. We have lot of confidence on the batsmen and they need to back us for the faith we have kept. Now we can think of those changes. We will sit down with selectors and address those issues."

Sri Lanka now have a six-week break before their next international assignment; the first Test against West Indies begins on October 14.