Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne pulled up his batters after they were handed a hiding by India in the first Test in Mohali. After India posted a mammoth 574/8 on a pitch that was good to bat on, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 174 and 178 and thus fell to a defeat by an innings and 222 runs. While India put up three century stands in their innings, all anchored by Ravindra Jadeja, Sri Lanka's highest partnership across the two innings was worth 58 runs for the fifth wicket between Charith Asalanka and Pathum Nissanka in the first innings.
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Karunaratne echoed his India counterpart Rohit Sharma in saying that he did not expect the match to get over in three days.
"We never thought it would finish by day three. The batters need to put their hands up and bat longer innings. When you are playing against India you have to capitalize on the starts, it was easy to bat on this track, once you get in you have to score big. We backed ourselves (by playing the extra seamer). We thought the wicket would crack open and is going to be up and down," Karunaratne told host broadcaster Star Sports at the post-match presentation.
"If we had bowled better then we could have restricted them. We were too defensive or too aggressive with the bat, need to get a balance between both by rotating the strike and that's how you play a big innings. As a batting unit, we have to put our hands up and score big. We did well for the first two sessions but could not execute when the ball got old and those are things we need to work on," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"If we had bowled better then we could have restricted them. We were too defensive or too aggressive with the bat, need to get a balance between both by rotating the strike and that's how you play a big innings. As a batting unit, we have to put our hands up and score big. We did well for the first two sessions but could not execute when the ball got old and those are things we need to work on," he added.
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