‘Hungry’ Dimuth Karunaratne happy to score another Test century

“We had a bad series against India. We want to desperately win this series. We are hungry. We just want to play our best and give our best and win the series. We are taking one day at a time. On day one we have done well and hopefully we will do well on day two as well,” Karunaratne was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

Sri Lanka are yet to win an away Test series against a team ranked above them since their historic triumph against England in 2014. Karunaratne can play a significant in that if he continues to perform on day two. He is the third highest runn-scorer this year.

“I played quite well in domestic one-day tournament as well. I am enjoying my Test cricket more than my one-day game. I am now fully focused in doing well in Tests. Want to become a good Test cricketer and that’s my main focus now,” Karunaratne added.

” I played a first-class game in Sri Lanka back with the pink ball and got a hundred. So I had some confidence going into this game although what we played in Sri Lanka was a day game. Today only the last session was under lights. The first four hours it was nice and smooth but the last two hours were tough. When the new ball gets softer it gets lot more easier to score runs,” Karunaratne said.

Karunaratne also played with his schoolmate Sadeera Samarawickrama and expressed his happiness that he could get a 63-run stand with his old partner.

“He was the highest run getter in first-class cricket last season. He played well today. I tried to give him confidence and he was very positive. I told him just to play his game. He had no fear and was very comfortable. Once he gets more experienced in this level he will convert them into big ones I am pretty sure,” he added.