Gaji
Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan was at a loss to give details how his side had drooping to beat in the first Test against England at Cardiff.
Sri Lanka was skittle out for just 82 on the final afternoon to misplace by an innings and 14 runs. There had appear to be little prospect of a result at the SWALEC Stadium, particularly when rain washed out the morning session for the fourth time in five days.
When play got under way at 3pm, with almost a day-and-a-half of time lost in total, England batted for just two over’s to permit Ian Bell (103 not out) to complete his 13th Test century before declare on 496 for five, a lead of 96.
That left the tourists needing to bat for 51 overs to secure a draw, but they were not up to the task as Chris Tremlett (four for 40), who was brilliant with the new ball in the absence of the injured James Anderson, and Graeme Swann (four for 16) ripped through the Sri Lankan line-up in an astonishing 24.4 overs in front of a final day crowd of just 922.
And a shell-shocked Dilshan was completely confused by his side's presentation, which included losing eight wickets for 49 runs after tea, mainly in the wake of the reputable 400 they had compiled batting first.
He said: "It's very hard to explain, I can't believe we got out in just 25 overs with such a good batting line-up like we have. We lost the match because we batted really badly today.
"We knew we would be batting for at least 45 or 50 overs. We knew looking forward in the morning that they would announce, everyone knew that after Bell's hundred they would declare, but I cannot give details what happened.
"Our batting line-up has guys like Mahela (Jayawardene), Kumar (Sangakkara), Thilan (Samaraweera) and myself, we are experienced players and we need to regroup as soon as possible and come back for the next Test on Friday."
Their 82 was Sri Lanka's lowest Test score in England, and their joint-fourth lowest of all time, but Dilshan, who was dismiss for 10 after giving a return catch to the towering Tremlett via his glove and thigh pad, said his side could have no complaint about the wicket.
"It was a very good wicket with a little bit of turn and a bit of bounce," he said. "It was a very good way. In the last two days it was good for batting, but we didn't bat well, that was the main issue, but it was really good for Test cricket."
It was a very much unsatisfactory way for Dilshan's first game as captain of his country to end, but he insist he will remain calm with such a short rotate until the second game of the three-match series at Lord's on Friday.
He said: "I am really calm, I can't be angry. We have to reorder and talk about it and try and get the maximum out of the young players and learn from the experience.
"We have another Test match on Friday. We can forget about what has happen in the last five days and look forward to Friday.
"It will be not easy to forget this Test match but we have to stick jointly as a team, do whatever we can exterior of cricket to get jointly and forget about everything."
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