We were surprised by the excessive turn in pitch, says Dinesh Chandimal

India cruised to victory in the second Test at Colombo with an innings and 53 runs as Sri Lanka’s batting order crumbled like a house of cards. yet again, in the second innings, but only after they put up a brave fight this time.

Skipper Dinesh Chandimal, however, felt that it was their disappointing first innings display that cost them the game. The right-handed batsman admitted the unexpected turn in pitch was the key to it. He said, "We were surprised as well because the pitch started turning more than we thought - more than it was in the first one and a half days. The reason we lost the game is because we got out for 183 in the first innings."

India had put up a massive score of 622 runs in their first innings courtesy to some brilliant batting by Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. After Sri Lanka had lost half the game with India winning the toss, the bone-dry pitch on the second day killed them altogether.

“After the second day's play, we felt it was tough to bat on it. We tried to play straight but we couldn't score well. We were completely outplayed… Scoring 622 is huge. That put us under a lot of pressure," said the captain.

However, the Lankan batsmen did brave the odds in their second innings with sweep shots raining over in and over out. Chandimal revealed that they felt it was the only way to score on such a track. “Before the second innings, we had a discussion and had a chat about what was the best way to score runs. Everyone agreed that the best way moving forward was by using the sweep and reverse sweep shots heavily. We executed that really well in the second innings. We fought hard," said Chandimal.

This was Team India’s first innings victory in Sri Lanka as Virat Kohli became the first Indian skipper to win two Test series in Sri Lanka.