England was a good learning experience – Mathews

Skipper Angelo Mathews said that three-match Test series against England which Sri Lanka lost 0-2 was a good learning experience for his young inexperienced team.

“We are a young team and not much experience. The way the guys fought facing Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in challenging conditions was good to see,” said Mathews at the end of the series on Monday.

“The way they batted they showed a lot of guts. It was brilliant. If we play together as a unit we can improve further. We played pretty well in the second innings in Durham. Here too we were sitting pretty and then lost a heap of wickets on day three,” he said.

The third and final Test at Lord’s was drawn after rain interrupted play several times on the fifth and final day.

Sri Lanka chasing a target of 362 runs began the day requiring a further 330 off 98 overs with all ten second innings wickets in hand.

“It was a sporting declaration by Alastair (Cook). We were going to go for it. We would rather lose a game trying to win it,” said Mathews. “But the weather intervened and we couldn’t get enough play. It would have been an interesting chase and a result was possible either way.

“The wicket was playing up and down, but still a good wicket. We had lost the series 2-0 and what more to lose. We wanted to try and win the game. That was the right way to go. The way guys batted they wanted to go for it.”

Talking of the positives Sri Lanka got out of the series Mathews said “there were lots of them”.

“The fast bowlers were extremely good. True conditions were good for them, but they had to do a good job. (Rangana) Herath was superb. He is 38 and he has backed the team with his all-round ability. He is even throwing himself all over the field. It was good to see the oldest man diving around and stopping boundaries,” said Mathews.

“Kusal Mendis was another huge positive for us in the series. (Dinesh) Chandimal came good in the second Test. Then Kaushal (Silva) and Dimuth (Karunaratne) gave us some good starts in this Test. All were hitting the ball pretty well and it was unfortunate that no one went onto get a big score except Chandimal. We didn’t win the series, but there were a lot of positives.”

With young Kusal Mendis vying for the number three slot vacated by Kumar Sangakkara with some consistent scores, the number four slot that was occupied by Mahela Jayawardene has now become an issue.

“We haven’t decided on a number four as yet. We need to find who is best and we will give it to the person we have picked,” said Mathews.

“If we pick someone, we need to give him a fair opportunity. Be patient with him. We don’t want to chop and change people. We need to find the best possible combination. When you identify a guy with skill and talent you need to persevere with him,” he said.

Sri Lanka will next move onto the ODI series starting with two against Ireland on June 16 and 18 before taking on England in five matches.

“England have been playing good cricket in the last six to seven months and they have been winning a lot of games. They play positive cricket and you have got to be on your toes and really good to beat them in the ODI series that’s coming up. We are looking forward for the challenge,” said Mathews.