This was the view expressed by Sri Lanka 'A' coach cum manager Rumesh Ratnayake after his team was beaten by 69 runs, chasing 165 runs for victory. The loss, the second in succession for the home team, gave West Indies 'A' an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the 3match series. The third and final 'Test' commences at Matara on Wednesday.
``I told the boys to play their natural game. I told them that we had a whole day in front of us to get the runs and not to make the mistakes the senior team did in the past, when they lost on the same grounds to Australia, chasing something like 182 to win, some years back,'' said Ratnayake.
``Unfortunately, it just didn't happen that way. The wicket turned a little bit more than in the first innings, but it was not unplayable. We generally play spin quite well. It was just that we were careless and a bit too overcautious,'' said Ratnayake.
``I know the players gave me their 100 percent, but it was not good enough,'' he said.
``Man to man I think ours is a much better side than the West Indies. If you analyze this game, we had eight good sessions and they had two, which were the most important ones,'' he said.
Ratnayake said what was lacking in our batsmen was the consistency and concentration to play the longer game.
``Take for instance, the West Indies' most attacking batsman Philo Wallace. He tried to play a different game in the second innings and still succeeded. That is what is lacking in our batsmen,'' said Ratnayake.
He complimented 'Man of the Match', off-spinner Ruwan Kalpage for his bowling performance in taking 12 wickets for 113 runs.
``That certainly was a fantastic performance. It is a shame that it could not win the game for us,'' he said.
Ratnayake also paid a compliment to West Indies 'A' right-arm leg-spinner Rawl Lewis, who he said was ``very much a Shane Warne for West Indies in the future''.
``He is a bowler which everybody should watch out for. He has very natural turn,'' said Ratnayake, a former Sri Lanka fast bowler, who took 73 wickets in 23 Tests before a shoulder injury forced him out of the game.
Lewis took a match bag of seven wickets for 110 runs and, with off-spinner Roger Harper (match bag of 9 for 87) turned the match in West Indies' favour when Sri Lanka needed only 131 runs to get on the final day with nine wickets in hand.
Both Harper and Lewis were also commended by their team coach Gus Logie who said: ``Harper's always been consistent. We know the quality of Harper and what to expect from him. He must be commended for his brilliant captaincy. His field placings and bowling changes were spot on.
``Young Lewis is here for some experience. He has proved that he can mix it with the big guns if they want to call him. He is one of the players we will be looking forward to in the future and for the rest of the series, along with the other two spinners, Nagamootoo and Samaroo''.
Logie said that West Indies 'A' knew they had a chance of winning when they bowled Sri Lanka out for less than a total of 350 in the first innings.
``We were hoping to bat all of the third day, but it didn't happen. However, we felt that any total around 200 on the last day would put Sri Lanka under pressure. We discussed the previous night that early wickets on the final day would put us in the game. We got two early wickets and that set the game up,'' said Logie.
``We must admit that we were up against some quality bowling in both innings. It is evident that Ruwan Kalpage, caused a lot of problems for our players on a wicket that was turning a lot. But we felt once we had a reasonable total to defend, it was going to be very difficult for Sri Lanka. It was a difficult wicket to play shots and our bowlers stuck to their task,'' he said.