Positive mindset made the difference – Silva

Leaving, defending and patience are generally held up as necessary virtues for openers in early-season England.  A little counter intuitively though, Kaushal Silva has said it was the adopting of a more assertive mindset that saw Sri Lanka make improvements to their batting in the second innings at Chester-le-Street.

Silva hit 60 in a team total of 475, and though he stressed that leaving and defending remained important on seaming surfaces, he also endorsed a more positive attitude towards run-making.

“If you attack any bowler, they will be put on the back foot by that,” he said.  “If you keep leaving the ball, these bowlers are so skilful that there is still a chance of getting out. Rotating the strike is crucial. When we score runs there is a little pressure on them as well.

“Here, the difference is that the good ball is what you should expect – that is what is normal, because the skills of their bowlers are great. So to counter that, we have to try and bat positively. Even if the correct decision is to leave, you have to commit wholeheartedly to that.”

The second innings at Chester-le-Street saw Sri Lanka batting past the 45th over for the first time in the series, as Silva, Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath hit half-centuries, while Dinesh Chandimal scored 126. They survived 128.2 overs in total, after Silva and Dimuth Karunaratne had put on their longest …

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