SL v NZ | The wicket got slower, not harder in the fourth innings, says Kane Williamson

The previous best chase at Galle was only worth 99, so when New Zealand set the hosts 268 to win in the final innings, almost nobody expected Sri Lanka – although at home – to pull it off. However, they did it with ease, thanks to Karunaratne’s century and a 161-run opening stand with Lahiru Thirimanne, who himself made 64.

"We thought the wicket would deteriorate more than it did. It perhaps got slower. It wasn't turning a huge amount out of the rough. It didn't get more difficult to bat on. I think there was a little bit more bounce and the turn was a little bit quicker in the first innings. Still, I think in a last-innings chase, a lot of credit goes to the way Sri Lanka batted. It was a fantastic hundred by Dimuth,” Williamson said after the six-wicket loss, reported ESPNCricinfo.

After combining for eight wickets in the first innings, New Zealand's two specialist spinners – Ajaz Patel and Will Somerville – only claimed a wicket apiece in the second. Mitchell Santner, the left-arm spinning all-rounder, went wicketless through the Test.

“I thought our bowlers operated patiently for a long period of time. We probably even bowled better in the second innings, but without the edges going to hand, and those sorts of things, which is the nature of the game we play,” Williamson said.

Quite uncharacteristically, Williamson himself did not manage a significant score in either inning of the match. He fell for nought and four, both while trying to play attacking shots.

"Personally I was probably looking to be too positive when it wasn't really required. In hindsight, if you go back in time, that wouldn't have been an option, because the wicket was pretty much just getting slower rather than deteriorating," he said.

With the second and final Test match of the series starting from August 22, New Zealand will hope that they fare better and get their first points on the board in the ICC Test Championship.

"We're up against a strong Sri Lankan side again who know these conditions very well. They're very clinical at playing the sort of cricket that's required here. We can take some lessons from the way they played as well. It was fairly evenly poised for a long part of the match. But they were exceptional in their last innings," Williamson added.