He also had special praise for his senior player Angelo Mathews, who has started bowling again after a long injury lay-off
Suranga Lakmal's 10-4-13-4 spell on Sunday knocked the wind out of India's dressing room, but brought back the smiles in an otherwise gloomy-looking visitors lobby in the ongoing series. His seaming spell on a chilly Sunday noon ensured that Sri Lanka's 12-match losing streak also ended in the process.
A near-capacity HPCA Stadium here witnessed one of the best bowling spells in the recent times. The curator Sunil Chauhan was bold enough to prepare a good cricketing pitch. This is another matter that match referee Richie Richardson was not too impressed with the Dharamsala pitch during the India-Australia Test match in March 2017.
And those who watched that game, where not a single delivery misbehaved during the full five days, here is a shocker that the former West Indian captain rated the pitch then as "average".
Ask Lakmal or the Lankans here and they would tell you that this was probably the best surface they have encountered during the current tour, even better than Kolkata's green surface.
"Look, Suranga (Lakmal) is a world class bowler. If you give him the conditions that suit him, doesn't matter to whom he bowls, he is always going to make life difficult," said Lankan coach Nic Pothas after his team's victory on Sunday.
Pothas praised the pitch, calling it good for a cricket contest. "In his career so far, he (Lakmal) has had the joy of bowling on flat, dry wickets. You give him some greenery, he will be brilliant. In South Africa at the start of this year, he was superb. He is a class performer and gutsy individual and a great guy to have in the team," added the South African.
When asked about the atmosphere of his dressing room after the victory, Pothas called it is a "happy dressing room".
"Yes, it is a good place to be in. We enjoyed the win. We haven't had a lot of success in white ball cricket," said the coach.
He also had special praise for his senior player Angelo Mathews, who has started bowling again after a long injury lay-off. "He (Mathews) looked great. He has got his workload in. The physio has done some great work with him. He is not full capacity yet. Angelo is world-class performer and the way he handled that situation with the bat showed how important he is for us."
Pothas believed that there were two "massive moments" in the game. "Toss was one and the no-ball to Upul Tharanga". And on both occasions, visitors came out with more luck!
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