KOLKATA, Saturday – Former Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews who scored a half-century along with team mate Lahiru Thirimanne said that getting fifties on the Eden Gardens pitch is not enough to win a Test match.
Mathews and Thirimanne made a fifty apiece and shared a third wicket stand of 99 to put Sri Lanka within eight runs of overhauling India’s first innings total of 172 with six wickets in hand at the end of the third day of the first Test.
“We have to go out there and take responsibility and try and score as many runs as possible. Fifties are not going to do any good to anyone. Not for me and not for my team. If we get a start we need to go onto get a big one.
It was a challenging wicket,” said Mathews at the end of the day. “All the Indian bowlers are very skilful. They keep coming at you. You can’t relax. If you see the loose balls there were very few you need to score off them. In the last few years the Indians have been producing some superb fast bowlers. Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav are world class. We need to be mentally prepared and be ready to score runs off them. I think we can,” he said. “We have a good batting unit. Thirimanne fought very hard out there in the middle and hopefully we can carry forward the work that has been done so far. The top order has done reasonably well so far. But fifties won’t take us anywhere. We need to try and score hundreds on this wicket.”
Talking of his own dismissal Mathews stated, “I don’t think there was lapse of concentration. I was looking to score runs. It’s just that it (the ball) stopped a little bit but no excuse. I should have left it alone maybe.
I was looking to score runs. You can’t hang in there forever. On this wicket you will get a good ball and you tend to get out. All in all it’s about runs. You have got to score runs. It won’t be pretty. You can’t be fluent on this wicket. You have got to grind and try and score runs.”
Mathews who was returning to international cricket after a calf strain had kept him out of cricket for two months said that he was in good physical shape at the moment and hopes to do well.
“To get into rhythm every cricketer who is coming after injury has to work a lot. I have not been playing cricket and I missed the last series. I had a good two month layoff and had a good preparation mentally and physically. I am in good shape and hopefully I can carry on doing the good job for the Sri Lankan team in the next few games.”
With only two days left in the Test and with only one team having completed an innings the game seemed destined for a draw with bad light and rain interfering with the proceedings on the first three days.
“You can’t take the foot off the gas. You have got to try and score as many runs as possible. You do not know on this wicket what kind of score is enough or what kind of lead is enough. Try and score as many runs as possible. Hopefully the next two days will be good with the weather and we can get a result and play some good cricket. You never know. Cricket is a funny game,” Mathews said.