Hashan Tillakaratne, who celebrated the first match of his captaincy tenure
with his eleventh Test century, believes Sri Lanka still have work to do on
the final day despite his side's strong reply to New Zealand's 515 for 7 and
a fourth day wash-out.
Play was called off with 48 overs still to be bowled in the day with Sri
Lanka on 424 for 6. Tillakaratne was unbeaten on 126, a dour but defiant
innings that makes a draw the likeliest result
Nevertheless, Tillakaratne still wants to chisel out more runs: "We want to
press for 500 runs and get at least a 50-run lead - it would be a psychological factor for the series.
"It is a good batting track, conducive to batting and I must thank the
batsmen for how they applied themselves. They showed a lot of commitment and
everything went well."
He paid a special tribute to Romesh Kaluwitharana, who played the innings of
the day, a sparkling boundary-studded 76 from 90 deliveries in his Test for
two years.
"Coming back after two years, it was a brilliant 76 and I am sure that he
will be getting more runs in the future," said Tillakaratne.
He made no apologies for his grinding approach, the left-hander contributing
just 26 runs to a 107-run partnership with Kaluwitharana.
"At that time we were in a spot of bother," he said. "I wanted Kalu and
myself to bat on and get 316 (to avoid the follow on) and that is what we
did."
Kaluwitharana, although disappointed to have missed out on a possible fourth
Test hundred, was delighted to have grabbed his opportunity to cement a
place.
"Coming back after two years it was a challenging match for me," said
Kaluwitharana. "I was under pressure. I know I have to score runs to stay in
the side and this was an opportunity for me.
"Having been left out of the side two years ago, I worked hard on occupying
the crease for long periods and scoring heavily. I was inconsistent but now
I know I can spend more time at the crease."
Jeff Crowe, the New Zealand manager, was disappointed with the performance
of his bowlers, who bowled too many loose deliveries during the last two
days.
"We haven't bowled well enough. Not enough balls have been put in the right
spot to put enough pressure on the Sri Lanka batsmen after our good first
innings.
"I thought the Sri Lankans played very well today - they waited for the bad
ball and dispatched it accordingly."