Batsmen played poor shots, says Kirsten

So, did the pressure of chasing a mammoth total bog the visitors down? “No. In fact, we felt pretty confident and started aggressively. We need to have control on our side and some runs will be good. We are going to fight back,” he said.

The South African did not spare the bowlers either and said they let the Lankans off the hook after taking two early wickets. “I think we struck early but did not get the balls in the right areas later. We did not capitalise after getting them two down for 57 runs. They have dominated us in this Test. So we have a lot of hard work to do now,” Kirsten said.

Kirsten also said the batsmen were not overly cautious against Ajantha Mendis, and in fact Sachin Tendulkar played the mystery bowler well. “Mendis is the new kid on the block and his deliveries are cryptic but Sachin (Tendulkar) played well, he had an understanding of his deliveries,” he said.

Meanwhile, centurion Tillakaratne Dilshan said Sri Lanka were looking to wrap up the Test. Dilshan was also surprised by the way Dinesh Karthik played Muttiah Muralitharan with just 10 overs to go before the close of play.