All posts by csb10.top

Rest and rotation of fast bowlers has become a contentious, and much-discussed, subject in recent years. Ask Graeme Smith, South Africa’s former captain, however, and he will tell you it is all modern day mumbo-jumbo that messes up a team’s mojo. Little wonder that Kagiso Rabada agrees.”Resting is when you’re off,” Rabada said. “When you get time off that’s when you must rest. When you need to bowl is when you need to bowl, to get yourself to the highest level you can be at. There’s no room for you to rest if you’re not bowling well.”After his first Test at a level slightly below excellent in Port Elizabeth, where Rabada was down on pace and lacked his usual aggression, his workload has become a topic of conversation. Rabada has played every Test since January 2016 (10) and all but two ODIs (15) and one T20 (nine) but the 21-year old denied suggestions that he is fatigued. Instead, he went the other way and, much like Dale Steyn used to say, claimed that the more he bowls, the better he feels.”I didn’t feel good rhythm in Port Elizabeth at all but I’ve just bowled more and got better rhythm through bowling,” he said.Before the St George’s Park match, Rabada was on a three-week break after the Australia tour. He was not required to play for his franchise, Lions, in the T20 tournament and he was not called on for the exhibition match between the national cricket and rugby teams. His captain, Faf du Plessis, said he believed Rabada had “had enough rest” ahead of the series and was ready to go.Rabada’s view is clear, although he would consider accepting a prescription of rest on the advice of higher-ups. “If it’s recommended you have to be open-minded about it,” he said. “The people that are in your area, you have to respect their opinions because they’re employed for a reason. Take their advice because they know what they’re talking about.”But you have to make the choice – it’s about how you feel. So you take their advice and then see what you think of it. It’s a broad topic. If you’re bowling well, you feel good. You don’t have to bowl as much. But I guess it comes with experience, because everyone’s different – knowing yourself and knowing when to rest.”Does the same thing apply to batting? With Hashim Amla struggling for fluency and form on the eve of his 100th Test, it has been suggested he could also do with a break, but Rabada was quick to defend the team’s most senior batsman. “He is not a robot so he is not going to play well all the time. He is a great player so he knows what to do to get back into form. You don’t do so well for so long by fluke. He knows what to do.”

Ross Taylor has been cleared by eye specialists to play the Hamilton Test against Pakistan, which is set to begin on November 25. However, the batsman needs surgery on his left eye, which will be done after the Test, thereby ruling him out of the ODIs in Australia in December.Taylor has a benign growth on the eye, called a “pterygium”. The growth is currently not obscuring his vision in any way, according to New Zealand’s physiotherapist Tommy Simsek, but will have to be removed before it gets larger.”Ross has a pterygium on his left eye, which is gradually getting bigger,” Simsek said. “Both the specialists he has seen in recent days have advised Ross still has 20/20 vision, and Ross himself feels confident he is ready to play.”But Ross will still need to undergo a medical procedure on his eye to remove the pterygium before it gets any larger. He’ll have surgery following the Test, which rule him out of cricket for approximately four to six weeks.”New Zealand are leading the two-Test series against Pakistan 1-0. After it ends, they travel to Australia to play three ODIs for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, between December 4 and 9. Their next international assignment is a visit by Bangladesh, which kicks off with an ODI on Boxing Day in Christchurch.Northern Districts batsman Dean Brownlie had been put on standby by the selectors, as cover for Taylor, when New Zealand Cricket announced the squad for the second Test against Pakistan. Allrounder Mitchell Santner returns to the squad for that Test, having recovered from a wrist fracture.

Pitches that start turning quite early could become the norm in the Test matches Bangladesh play at home. The series against England was played on such surfaces, and Bangladesh competed admirably. They came within 23 runs of victory in Chittagong before taking all 10 wickets in single session to level the series in Dhaka.While it would certainly enhance their biggest strength – spin bowling – it may also pose a challenge to the batsmen. But Bangladesh’s top three have showed signs of being up for it.Tamim Iqbal avoided some shots, assessing their risk to be too much, on a turning pitch but still made a century at a strike-rate of 70.74 in the second Test. His opening partner Imrul Kayes was fully committed to being aggressive, his 78 off only 120 balls in the second innings helped set a target beyond England’s reach. Mominul Haque, at No. 3, was his usual composed self and contributed with his 10th half-century.With confidence that their batsman can handle it, Bangladesh are set to welcome touring sides – especially those with a reputation of struggling in the subcontinent – with tailor-made pitches for the spinners.”I think wickets at home will be made according to our opponents,” Tamim told ESPNcricinfo. “If we are playing against teams from the subcontinent, then I don’t think playing on such wickets will help us, but it will be different when we play against teams like Australia, England and New Zealand.”Tamim added that standing up to tough conditions was quite pleasing. He was the only batsman from either side to score a hundred in the two Tests. “It feels really good to have made runs in these kinds of difficult tracks. The team took a decision, and we stuck by it. The planning meant that we had to work hard, so scoring around 230 runs is something good.”I think my 78 in Chittagong has its own value. The ball spun a lot with many things out of the batsman’s control. The 104 in the second Test is most valuable among my hundreds against England, considering the conditions and the fact that we won the game.”Mominul’s had an additional challenge. He isn’t a regular in ODIs and T20Is and was coming into the Tests having not batted in international cricket for over a year. He got a three-ball duck in his first innings of the series, the outside edge carrying off the wicketkeeper’s leg to gully, but adjusted better later on with help from batting consultant Thilan Samaraweera.”When I was playing and got four months [off], it was very hard [coming back],” Samaraweera said, “Especially in the first innings of the first Test. However you train and whatever you do, when you come to the game, you are under pressure. That’s a different pressure. Importantly, you have to stick to the routines to get your body right for the game.”In the first inning of the first Test, the way he [Mominul] got out, that’s hard. The first few balls, you don’t know. We talked a little bit, different things. They are willing to work, that’s the key thing. Whatever I say, if they don’t listen to, it won’t work. But these boys are absolute superstars. Straightaway they work [at it].”Bangladesh’s limited-overs captain Mashrafe Mortaza also praised how the team read the pitches in Dhaka and Chittagong and attacked England.”The thing I liked the most was the batting approach, it was very positive. Since it was hard to stay in these wickets, the batsmen had to score rapidly. Batsmen like Alistair Cook and Joe Root didn’t do well, so it showed that settling in these wickets wasn’t easy.”Bangladesh’s batting was criticised because there were some bad shots and some untimely dismissals. While it is hard to deny such mistakes, what thrilled me was how they were able to read the wicket. They knew they had to play the shots, so guys like Tamim and Imrul batted very well. And at least one batsman stood up whenever necessary.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:29

Agarkar: Kohli batted according to the merit of the ball

An unbroken partnership of 167 between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, the highest of the series so far, put India in control at the end of Indore’s first day of Test cricket. Kohli ended the day on 103, his 13th Test hundred. It was by no means his most enthralling innings, but it was utterly dominant in that he gave New Zealand no inch on a largely attritional day. Rahane, less certain, gutsed it out to stay unbeaten on 79 and India were 267 for 3.Having come together at 100 for 3, with the match in the balance, Kohli and Rahane gradually asserted India’s dominance in front of an enthusiastic crowd numbering over 18,000. Having started watchfully – they added 48 in 20 overs before tea – they grew increasingly fluent, scoring 119 in the final session in 34 overs, at exactly three-and-a-half runs an over.All five of New Zealand’s bowlers were disciplined and had well-thought-out plans, but there was little help for them off a pitch that wasn’t the greatest to look at, with cracks all over its surface, but played more or less true on the first day, if a little slow. The offspinner Jeetan Patel was their best bowler, but his figures – 1 for 65 off 24 overs – told a story: he frequently beat the batsmen in the air, but they usually managed to adjust since it didn’t turn all that much or all that quickly once it landed.Kohli came into the match with scores of 44, 3, 4, 9, 18, 9 and 45 in his last seven Test innings, but the last of them, in Kolkata, had been a superb display of footwork and judgment on a pitch with uneven bounce. It suggested he wasn’t really out of form.Again, in Indore, he avoided the extravagant shots that had got him out in his first three innings of the series, and accumulated steadily, blending into the background for most part. He didn’t offer any clear chances, and the two times he edged the ball, it eluded the fielders: on 39, drift caused him to edge Patel between keeper and slip; on 69, he reached out at a wide-ish length ball from James Neesham, and edged through a vacant first slip.Otherwise, New Zealand could see no way past him and, every now and again, he roused the crowd with his strokeplay. There were a couple of his trademark extra-cover drives, but his most breathtaking shots on the day came on the leg side: a checked pull off Trent Boult, when he adjusted to the ball staying lower than expected; a back-foot whip to the right of midwicket, against the turn, off Mitchell Santner; a clip off the legs, off Boult, that bisected square leg and long leg. All three times, the ball sped away effortlessly, testament both to the quickness of the outfield and to Kohli’s timing.Rahane endured a few nervous moments against the short ball. Twice – on 3 by Matt Henry and on 25 by Neesham – he lifted his hands instinctively to protect his face, and was lucky the ball hit his arm guard on both occasions rather than his glove. On 7, he top-edged a pull as Boult went around the wicket and angled a short ball into his body, and saw the ball fall inches wide of Henry rushing in from the square leg boundary. On 41, he kept his gloves and bat out of the way of a Henry bouncer, but couldn’t move his upper-body across quickly enough to evade it, and took a blow to the back. There were a number of other times when he ducked or swayed awkwardly, with eyes off the ball, as well.Ajinkya Rahane endured a few nervy moments against the short ball•BCCI

But a good batsman makes runs even in discomfort, and Rahane did not let these moments affect him. His defence was solid, and he got his head right on top of the ball while striding forward to the spinners – a failure to do so had cost him his wicket twice in Kanpur. Occasionally, he served up a reminder of his timing, such as when he lofted Patel back over his head and when he drove Santner inside-out to the cover boundary. He went past fifty with a six, stepping out to Patel, not quite reaching the pitch of the ball, but adjusting by playing with an almost horizontal bat to swat the ball over wide long-on.Given the look of the surface, India seemed to gain an early advantage when they won their third toss of the series and their eighth in a row in home Tests. Batting, by general consensus, would be easiest on days one and two. But India didn’t really press their advantage in the first two sessions, despite their batsmen looking fairly comfortable in the middle.The crowd was treated to an entertaining start as M Vijay drove Boult on the up for two fours through the covers in the third over of the morning, and Gautam Gambhir, returning to the Test side after two years to replace the injured Shikhar Dhawan, pulled Henry for successive sixes in the fourth over. Kane Williamson, back in charge of New Zealand after missing the Kolkata Test with illness, brought Patel on in the fifth over, and he struck with his fifth ball, getting it to dip on Vijay, who looked to flick a long way in front of his body and gave Tom Latham the chance to pull off a juggling reflex catch at short leg.There was little turn on offer for Patel and Santner, who bowled from both ends till the 11th over, and Cheteshwar Pujara and Gambhir settled down nicely before Boult and Henry came back into the attack. The quicks changed their lengths to Gambhir in their second spells, bowling noticeably fuller and trying to exploit the left-hander’s tendency to shuffle across his crease. He grew quieter against this mode of attack, scoring only two runs in 20 balls before he was lbw to Boult, bringing his bat down at an angle to a full one that nipped in slightly.Pujara looked serene through to lunch, using his feet to the spinners, getting nicely on top of the rising ball against the quicks, putting the bad ball away, and showing more willingness than in Kolkata – given the lack of turn or seam movement off this surface – to change the angle of his bat face to look for singles on both sides of the pitch.After lunch, however, both he and Kohli had to work hard for their runs as Patel settled into a good rhythm. He caused both batsmen problems, bellowing out an lbw appeal after Kohli went back to a quicker one on a good length – the ball striking his pad just outside the line – and throwing his hands up in the air when Pujara came down the track, failed to cover for drift, and edged a defensive push through backward point.It was Santner, though, who gave New Zealand the breakthrough, in the second over of a new spell. Firing one in just short of a good length, he caused indecision in Pujara, who pressed half-forward, and then went halfway back and ended up caught on the crease as the ball spun sharply past his defensive bat and hit his off stump.

New Zealand were pleasantly surprised to find some help for their quicks in the pitch at Eden Gardens, fast bowler Matt Henry has said. Henry took three wickets on a day New Zealand kept India to 239 for 7. This could still be a big total given India’s spinners and the absence of Kane Williamson, but it was overall quite a satisfactory day for New Zealand considering they had lost the toss.”It was a fair wicket,” Henry said. “Obviously, coming over here you probably don’t expect conditions like that at the start of the day so we knew we had to make the most of that, especially being put in with the ball. It was always going to be tough work through that middle period when it would become a good surface. We had to find ways to put pressure on when we weren’t taking wickets and as a bowling group that is a box we ticked today.”Before they put that pressure through dry bowling, though, New Zealand had to make sure they used the pitch that would have sweated in the preceding days because of the overcast skies and the covers on it. “We knew it was important with the new ball to take advantage of it because the wicket had been under covers for a long time so that was going to be a crucial part of the game,” Henry said. “The way we went about our work today was outstanding. We knew we had to make sure we controlled the run rate because it is very tough in these conditions to take wickets.”Moving forward from there it was just important to maintain those [bowling] partnerships through the middle and make sure we could create pressure by building dots. Our spinners were outstanding today. Jeets [Jeetan Patel] and Sat [Mitchell Santner] were fantastic in allowing us to build a lot of pressure, and that manifested to what happened at the end of the day.”Patel was in England last week, not even dreaming of playing for New Zealand when an injury to Mark Craig resulted in a call-up. Henry, who hardly ever bowls badly, is not a regular in the New Zealand XI because of the surplus pace resources. He, too, was not part of the original squad, but came in only thanks to an injury to Tim Southee. For such players, keeping themselves fit and prepared is a big challenge, but New Zealand players have shown they are always prepared.Matt Henry struck with both the new balls•BCCI

“I knew I had to make sure I did all my preparation,” Henry said. “I’ve still being doing a lot of training and work behind the scenes. Even not being able to play in South Africa, I was still doing a lot of work with the coaches in the nets and making sure I was ready to go if needed. We had a few warm-up games out at Lincoln, some winter training squad one-dayers to keep the loads up.”It is easier said than done, though, to retain the sunny attitude when you know your chances are not as frequent as you want them to be. “It’s never easy but it is one of those things that we have such a strong bowling group,” Henry said. “It is a good position for us to be in, you just always have to prepare to play and focus on what the team needs and what your role is going to be so if you do get called in you can do what we need to get done.”Henry was full of praise for Patel too, who took the wickets of a set Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. “It is a tough ask coming in from England and only having a couple of days to prepare,” Henry said. “He’s obviously got a lot of experience. He brought a lot of energy in the field and experience and confidence. I thought the way he played today was exceptional, the way both spinners played in tandem. They showed a lot of control and created pressure through those tough periods where it was really hot and important we could control that run rate because we had to keep that squeeze on.”While Rahane felt this was a two-paced pitch and that 300 was a good score on it especially considering a Williamson-less New Zealand might have to bat last. Henry said his batsmen were capable of taking the game deep, just as the bowlers did. “We have a great batting line-up and obviously it is a shame not to have Kane there but I know our batsmen will [apply themselves],” he said. “It is going to be a tough day with the heat and things like that. We just have to keep playing the long game and apply it as best we can.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

TTCB to investigate washout

After the Test, Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board president Azim Bassarath said the reasons behind the outfield’s condition would be investigated by his board.
“As hosts, the TTCB and Queen’s Park Cricket Club regret that limited play was possible in the fourth Test match between West Indies and India at the Queen’s Park Oval,” he said in a statement. “We have jointly launched an investigation to determine what occurred with a view to remedying the situation so that this does not occur in the future. Once this has been done it will be presented to the WICB.”

The farce in Port of Spain ended in bright sunshine with no play possible, just like the earlier three days. Called off at 9.30am on the fifth day, this was the third-shortest non-abandoned Test ever.This was the first Test played in August in Trinidad, which is the rainy season. The outfield had taken a lot of beating in the days leading up to the Test, but the ground staff was economical with covering the ground when it rained, leaving the bowlers’ run-up exposed. There was no super sopper available either. As a result the field didn’t recover from the rain on day one, and only 22 overs – all in the first session of the Test – were bowled.The draw meant India lost their No. 1 ranking to Pakistan one week after they had gained it thanks to the whitewash of Australia in Sri Lanka. They still won the series 2-0, the first time they won two Tests in a series in the West Indies.

Zimbabwe have been dealt a major blow ahead of their two-Test series against New Zealand with fast bowler Tendai Chatara being ruled out of both games with an ankle injury. Chatara is the second seamer to miss out after Tinashe Panyangara failed to recover from a back problem in time for the Tests. Michael Chinouya has been called up as a replacement.Chatara sustained the injury, a recurrence of a prior problem, during the three-day warm-up game between Zimbabwe A and the New Zealanders. He bowled 16 overs on the first day, and took one wicket for 53, but finished the day complaining of pain in the left-ankle. Chatara did not participate any further in the match and received treatment and strapping on the ankle, but with no improvement in his condition, a replacement was selected.Instead of look to the members of the A side, who included the more experienced Shingi Masakadza, Zimbabwe opted for uncapped seamer Chinouya. With 166 first-class wickets to his name from 65 matches, Chinouya has played more matches than other members of the A attack – like Tatenda Mupunga (19 matches), Victor Nyauchi (12) and Gerald Aliseni (5) – but has not played any recognised cricket since February.More worryingly, Chatara’s injury has robbed Zimbabwe of all experience in their seam attack. Njabulo Ncube and Donald Tiripano have only played a Test each and Taurai Muzarabani, who replaced Panyangara, is uncapped in the longest format.Zimbabwe could also have a problem at the the other end of their line-up. Opening batsman Tino Mawoyo was also injured in the A game after being hit on the hand by Tim Southee. Mawoyo had to retire hurt after facing four balls in the first innings and did not bat in the second. He went for an x-ray which showed no fracture, so he will travel to Bulawayo but will continue to be monitored by the national physiotherapist ahead of the first Test, which starts on July 28.Should Mawoyo not be available, Zimbabwe have Brian Chari and Prince Masvaure to open in their squad but may recall Vusi Sibanda, who was dropped for this series. The other potential opener, Nkosana Mpofu, who played the tour game, also hurt his knee against the New Zealanders, but he was able to bat again.

Australia batsman Nic Maddinson has been called up to the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad as a replacement for captain Martin Guptill, who is leaving to join the New Zealand squad ahead of the two-Test series against Zimbabwe beginning July 28.Maddinson has played two T20Is for Australia, scoring a total of 38 runs in two innings against India and South Africa. In the most recent 2015-16 Big Bash League, Maddinson captained the Sydney Sixers, who finished last, and scored 141 runs in seven innings with a best of 70 against Sydney Thunder. In his T20 career, he averages 23.93 with six fifties in 50 innings.Guptill’s last game prior to departing was Friday’s encounter against Jamaica Tallawahs at Sabina Park where he scored a duck in his team’s loss.

Opener Aaron Finch, who scored 72 out of Australia’s total of 142, has said that South Africa’s “excellent” execution of plans in the first 10 overs of the chase set up their 47-run win in Guyana. After scoring 189 for 9, South Africa bundled out Australia in 34.2 overs to go on top of the table.”We knew that we had to try and take on the new ball a little bit and I probably didn’t do that straight up,” Finch said. “The pressure builds on other players and that was unfortunate. It took me a while to get going. Yes, there was some very good bowling and you have got to give credit on a wicket that suited bowling. I thought that they executed excellent in the first 10 overs; that pulled them well ahead of the game.”Finch was the only batsman among the top nine to score in double digits and the only Australian to go past 30. Even though he batted till the 31st over, taking Australia to within 77 runs of the target, the lack of substantial partnerships cost the team. No Australian pair could put on more than 30 runs or bat for longer than eight overs.”I think that chasing 188 on a wicket like that was always going to be tough,” Finch said. “We probably needed one or two big partnerships to really kick us off but three down early wasn’t ideal and we knew that as soon as the spinners come on, the new batters come in and it’s always going to be hard.”Finch’s patient knock was his 11th half-century in ODIs. He brought up his fifty off 58 balls but slowed down later as wickets tumbled around him. The rest of the top-nine batsmen managed only 24 runs together as Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell and the spinners kept getting the breakthroughs.”It was nice to get a few runs,” he said. “When you look up and you only get done at 50-odd runs, it’s disappointing. I thought that when I was batting with Nathan [Lyon] we could still get home and it was my responsibility and I got out. So that was disappointing, it doesn’t feel good getting runs when you lose. You move on and regroup and the players in our side are world-class so no doubt that we can turn it around quickly.”The pitches at the Providence Stadium in Guyana in the first three matches of the tri-series have been slow with slightly uneven bounce, especially on Tuesday. Finch said that while it would take Australian batsmen some time to get used to these conditions, they would have to come up with a strategy soon to tackle the spinners.”When you have wickets that are so foreign to us, you’re still going to take a little bit of time to adapt,” he said. “We know that teams are going to come with spin – both South Africa and West Indies have got quality spin line-ups. They’re going to come and be aggressive with their spinners and that’s something that we are prepared for and unfortunately tonight it didn’t pan out for us and we weren’t able to attack their spinners a hell of a lot, so that’s something to work on for next time.”Batting collapse aside, Finch was still upbeat about the show his bowling team-mates, particularly the fast bowlers, put on after South Africa opted to bat on what was expected to be a spin-friendly wicket. Josh Hazlewood got the early breakthrough with Quinton de Kock’s wicket and, when Nathan Coulter-Nile bowled AB de Villiers and JP Duminy, South Africa were reduced to 104 for 5.”Disappointing to lose but I think there’s still to take a lot out of it…for the way that Josh Hazlewood bowled throughout the innings – with the new and the old ball – Nathan Coulter-Nile coming back [for the second spell]…I thought that there were still a lot of positives for us,” he said.”The way that Josh Hazlewood bowled with the new ball on a wicket where we knew that Quinton de Kock was going to come hard at us. He got 2 for 20 off 10 overs, which was extraordinary. Nathan Coulter-Nile after his initial three overs, he comes back and he went for 18 or 19 off his next seven overs and grabbed the big wicket of AB. I think there were still positives there with the ball. The way that Nathan Lyon is coming back into one-day cricket is excellent, the way that he is bowling so far.”To have South Africa at 6 for 112 after 30-odd overs was a great position to be in. We unfortunately couldn’t get that other breakthrough and break that [Farhaan] Behardien and [Aaron] Phangiso partnership that allowed them to get on. But still a great effort to get them six down.”Even though spinners were expected to dominate on the slow pitch, the fast bowlers who opened for both sides in the match were successful and played cruial roles in limiting the oppositions. While Hazlewood and Coulter-Nile picked up two wickets each, Rabada finished with 3 for 13 from seven overs, and Parnell got the big wickets of David Warner and Steven Smith.”On wickets that are predominantly down, if you’ve got tall bowlers who hit the wicket hard, there can be just as much assistance as there is for spin,” Finch said. “You can probably get a little bit too focused on the spin having a big impact and [see] the quicks as less of a threat. But when the wicket is going down like that, if someone’s banging it hard on that length consistently and some are going underground and some are going normally, it can be hard to play and they’ve got some quality bowlers. Rabada is an outstanding bowler and he will be for a long time and Wayne Parnell is quite experienced.”Australia will now face South Africa again in their next match, at Basseterre in St Kitts on June 11.

A failure to leave the ball decisively paved the road to an “embarrassing” and “humiliating” innings-defeat at Headingley, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said. Chasing England’s 298 in the first innings, Sri Lanka collapsed to 91, then 119 following on. They batted for less than 73 overs in the match. Thirteen Sri Lanka dismissals were catches behind the wicket on the off side.”We were not decisive in leaving the ball,” Mathews said. “They bowled in good areas and we just kept putting our bats out of line of the stumps, and it kept nicking our bats all the time. We have to be decisive and play the correct one.””It was quite an embarrassing defeat. It was pure poor batting and the execution. You have to be really skillful to bat against these guys, especially in these conditions. Anderson once again showed his class. Stuart Broad was brilliant as well. One or two of our guys needed to raise our hands and put up a good score, particularly in the first innings. We failed to do that in the first innings, and once again in the second innings, so that’s a pretty obvious reason for our defeat.”Sri Lanka had appeared to be in control of the game when their bowlers reduced England to 83 for 5 in the second session of the opening day. However, Jonny Bairstow and Alex Hales put on a partnership of 141 in which at least three catches were spilt. Later, Bairstow also combined with No. 10 batsman Steven Finn for a further 55 runs.”We got five wickets for 80 runs, and we let them off the hook,” Mathews said. “We dropped at couple of catches. Jonny Bairstow batted brilliantly – credit should go to him and Alex Hales. They got them to a decent score on this wicket and it was up to us as batters to get to a decent score as well. But once you get 90-odd runs, it is very a difficult road going into the second and third days. It was very tough. We have good enough batting to pass 300, but we made it very tough for ourselves.”Having lost inside three days at Headingley, Sri Lanka now have five full days in which to prepare for the second Test at Chester-le-Street. Sri Lanka have come back to square a series following a heavy loss in the past year. They recovered from a ten-wicket hiding against Pakistanat Galle last June, before winning the next Test. Mathews said his men would look to such series for inspiration.”We have done it in the past. We have a couple of days to regroup, think about our strategy, train really hard and come back hard. All we’ve got to do is change our mindset. If you believe you can do it. Yes, it was a humiliating defeat. It was embarrassing. But if you stick to our plans in the second game we could turn the tables around.”Sri Lanka had been through extended preparation for this tour, having gone to a training camp in Kandy, before also playing two tour matches against Leicestershire and Essex. Mathews said the conditions at Headingley were much tougher.”Nothing really went close to this game. It was swinging and seaming right from the word go. If you have top-quality fast bowling like Broad and Anderson in your team, the opposition batsmen have to work really hard. It was swinging and seaming right throughout the first day and second day, because there was no sun on the wicket to dry it out.”