Dimuth dedicates series win to all Sri Lankans
“Our two pacemen Asitha Fernando and Kasun Rajitha did their job for us, both in the first innings as well as second innings,” said Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne after the second Test victory against Bangladesh in Dhaka yesterday.
“We do get good wickets for spinners in such conditions, they did well in pitches, but i’m a bit disappointed at how they bowled. They will have to do a lot better in the next series with Australia,” said Dimuth.
“We have done well as a Test team over the last few years, a lot of performances and we’ll need to continue in the same way. We would like to thank the Sri Lankans back home, this win is for them. The country is going through troubled times at the moment,” said Dimuth Karunaratne in the post-match presentation.
Meanwhile, experienced Angelo Mathews who made back-to-back centuries in this two-Test match series won the Player of the Series award. The 34-year-old Mathews said, “Nothing is better than getting Test hundreds and winning matches.”
“They made me work extremely hard for my runs though. It’s difficult to compare, but two good wickets. Chittagong was flatter, here in Mirpur, there was some life for the bowlers early on, was up and down at times, credit must go to our bowlers. Feeling confident, when you get a start, you’d have to make it count and that’s what I did, ” said Mathews.
The 24-year-old right-arm medium paceman Asitha Fernando who took his career-best figures of 6 for 51 completed a match bag of 10 for 144 (with his first innings 4/93). A product of St. Sebastian’s Katuneriya, he was adjudged Man of the Match.
Asitha Fernando the match hero said ” There was a bit of grass on the first morning and it helped the seamers, then the bounce got variable, needed to keep the ball in the right areas. I must thank Kasun Rajitha who gave good support from the other end.
It was a combined effort to execute our game plan and my team captain Dimuth Karunaratne and all others gave good support to me,” said Asitha Fernando.