New Zealand’s winning captain Kane Williamson said the lessons of their loss at Galle in the first Test stood them in good stead to recoup and win the second game at the P Sara Oval yesterday and tie the two-match series one-all.
“The experience we had in Galle was good although we lost the game for us to build up and to make improvements for this game. Sri Lanka are an extremely tough team to beat. We were close in Galle but not close enough. It was nice to touch on small areas and win this match,” said Williamson celebrating his team’s innings and 65 runs victory over Sri Lanka.
“It was two different matches. This had a little bit of pace and I think it deteriorated a little bit making batting difficult in the end. But the way the guys applied themselves forming those partnerships was an outstanding effort.
“Trying to give us an opportunity to get us a result was good and obviously there were some superb individual performances. Scoring at a rate was good because of the amount of time that we had lost in this game. It was an outstanding collective effort by the bowling unit,” he said.
“The seamers and spinners were brilliant to take ten wickets and try and do it quickly was great. We knew that the weather was going to play a part, but it’s a great step up and improvement from Galle for sure.”
Williamson said the innings played by Colin de Grandehomme gave them the momentum that was needed. Grandehomme slammed five sixes and five fours in scoring 83 off 77 balls.
“It was incredibly valuable for a guy to come and score at less than a run a ball. To think the time that was lost it was important for someone to give us that momentum. We required something special,” said Williamson. “There were other contributions as well BJ Watling and Tom Latham. We needed those runs. If they had passed our score it takes so much time out of the game. All parts fell in place for us and we won.”
The New Zealand captain who had heart-breaking World Cup final in England said the one-all result was a fair one considering the tough conditions the two teams had to play under.
“Two teams going at each other in those conditions it’s tough for everyone. Both sides are playing well and it is 1-1. It is tough but we knew it was going to be a two-Test series. Nice to consider and play a third but both sides played well and deserved to win those games.” Williamson said.
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