Mahela praises youngsters for great fight back

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from England

CRICKET: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was elated the way his young team had played to hold England to a draw in the first cricket Test, which ended at Lord's, London on Monday.

"This performance has given a lot of confidence to the youngsters because that is what they need. Belief in themselves they could do all this in this level of cricket," said Jayawardene. "Most of them haven't achieved anything in their careers. This performance will definitely give them a lot of confidence. I am very happy for them."

Jayawardene was in particular referring to the ninth wicket pair Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekera who put on a record 105 runs to deprive England of victory. The pair came together with Sri Lanka still not quite out of the woods at 421-8, a lead of only 61 and continued to frustrate England for 188 minutes by which time Sri Lanka had insured them from defeat.

Vaas went onto remain unbeaten on 50, his tenth Test fifty while young Kulasekera went onto complete his maiden Test half-century scoring 64. "I had a lot of belief in Vaasy and Kulasekera and Dilshan at the end of he fourth day. They showed a lot of character especially Vaasy. The experience he's got he showed everything.

He guided Kulasekera throughout the innings and batted really well with a lot of responsibility. He probably deserves the man of the match award more than anybody else," said Jayawardene.

Thanks to this pair Sri Lanka staged one of Test cricket's greatest fight backs to draw the Test. Jayawardene who was top scorer for his team in both innings with 61 and 119 won the award, but said: "Even though I won the man of the match I think the whole team deserves it. They showed a lot of character from top to bottom and batted really well especially today. It was a brilliant effort from all the guys."

Apart from Jayawardene's and the ninth wicket pair's contribution there were useful half-centuries from the bats of Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Farveez Maharoof and Tillakaratne Dilshan, all of which added immensely towards Sri Lanka's final total of 537-9.

Jayawardene ranked the Test as among the best that he's played in his 79-match career. The two fine innings he played in the Test he said was important for him. "In the past when I was given responsibility there were a lot of people saying that it was difficult for me to continue with my batting and perform at the highest level with the extra responsibility. I managed to prove a lot of them wrong in this Test," said Jayawardene.

"I am not saying it in a bad way but it is something that I have to come out with because I have been criticised a lot in the last 4-5 years whenever I was given the responsibility. I don't think my batting has anything to do with responsibility it is how I go out there and perform."

Jayawardene rated his second innings hundred as probably among the best three out of the 14 Test hundreds he's made in his career. "The conditions were not ideal and the ball was moving around. I was focussed and I wasn't looking for runs. I wanted to bat out the time and see what we can achieve at the end of the day. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to bat today as well. But that's how the game goes," he said.

This century will rank probably among the first three of my 14 hundreds. Jayawardene said that if his team was to win they had to bowl England out twice.

"We only got five wickets in this Test. There are a lot of areas, which we need to improve if we are to compete with England. They are playing really good cricket. We can't win matches by competing only two days. It is five days and we have to start competing each and every day. We are looking forward to the next two Test matches," he said.

Jayawardene said although his team benefited immensely by dropped catches, you could not take anything away from the players who fought really hard. "Dropped catches are part and parcel of the game. It is beyond our control. England will be disappointed. Not much went our way the first three days, but things turned around for us in the last two days," said Jayawardene.

We can still win the series - Flintoff

Despite the disappointment of not being able to beat Sri Lanka after making them follow-on 359 runs in arrears and being one-up, England captain Andrew Flintoff was confident his team could still win the three-Test series.

"We played some good cricket and we got into some good positions. We know that the Sri Lankans can fight and they can be competitive. They've got some talented players in their dressing room. Our confidence hasn't been dented as a team. We are still expecting to win the series," said Flintoff. "The way Sri Lanka batted in the first innings it was a false representation of the pitch.

It is still a very good wicket and they came out and played themselves in the second innings. We probably couldn't imagine we'd still be there at five on Monday night, full credit to them. The difference was if we had held our catches we would have won the game," he said. England spilled as many as nine catches, three of them on the final day when they had to get only four wickets.

"Dropped catches are not an issue. You've seen the lads at practice you've seen how they work. We have a good catching unit and we have taken a lot of good catches in the past 2-3 years. It is just one of those things. I don't think it is a major issue," said Flintoff. "It was tough not from the catches point of view, but the lads kept going and going which was a good effort to try and bowl the Sri Lankans out.

As captain I did what I thought was best. "The mood in the dressing room is great. They enjoy playing cricket for England. Although we couldn't come out of this game with a win we got a lot of positives. Some young bowlers have come in and performed on the big stage and the batters are firing," he said.