Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal, who scored a fighting half-century in the company of skipper Angelo Mathews to save his side from being bowled out for an embarrassing total, praised the Indian bowlers for making the best use of the Galle International Stadium track.

“Credit goes to their bowlers, they bowled really well,” said Chandimal at the post match press conference on Wednesday. “We all know for the last 2-3 days, the pitch was completely covered (due to rain). Suddenly they took it off in the morning. With the dew, there was a bit of turn there. Credit goes to their bowlers.”

“We didn’t click as a batting unit. It can happen. Looking forward to the next innings. They didn’t give any pace for us. They bowled really slowly. As batsmen it’s really difficult to get runs with the straight shots. Always had to play the sweeps and reverse sweeps. Credit to them, they bowled really well. We haven’t seen turn like this at Galle on day one. The turn we had here was the kind of turn you normally get on the fourth or fifth day. As a batting unit we didn’t know that beforehand.

“We know it now. We’ll try to restrict India to as low a total as we can and plan how to bat in the second innings,” added Chandimal.

Even in the preceding Test series against Pakistan, the Sri Lankan batsmen, most of them new to the Test arena, struggled against spin. When asked if that was a weakness for the current crop, Chandimal said it varies from batsman to batsman.

“Individually we need to know where our weaknesses are, it can be against spin or seam. You get days like this in cricket and you have to expect them. We hope we can get runs in the second innings.”