Must find a way to counterattack Ashwin - Mathews

For the second home series in a row Sri Lanka are being hounded by an opposition spinner, but the strategy that briefly worked against Yasir Shah may not yield dividends against R Ashwin, Angelo Mathews has said. Ashwin has taken 17 wickets at an average of 16.35 in the series so far, claiming five-wicket hauls in each of the two Tests.

In June, Sri Lanka had also faltered against Pakistan legspinner Yasir Shah, who took 24 wickets in that series. Mathews and the Sri Lanka batsmen had attempted to be positive against him initially, but eventually had moderate success against him only by tiring the bowler out. They defended Yasir's first two spells in the final Test of the series in Pallekele, before adopting a more aggressive approach against him.

Sri Lanka's approach against Ashwin had been to look for runs against him immediately, with several batsmen coming out of their crease early in their innings.

"Since the last Test we talked a lot about Ashwin." Mathews said. "He is very accurate. Yasir Shah was also accurate. You need to be positive against them - look for the balls that you can hit rather than trying to defend all six. That's the approach we wanted to take towards this game and we just couldn't do that. Once again we struggled."

Mathews had been most effective at countering Yasir in the previous series, hitting a second-innings 122 in the third Test. However, he suggested a defensive approach against Ashwin may not work, given the composition of Sri Lanka's top order.

"Every bowler is quite different," Mathews said. "We have a lot of left-handers in our line-up and it makes it easier for Ashwin to try and be very aggressive against them. So we need to look to score runs and rather than stay at the wicket. We need to find out a way to counterattack him. We can't just hang around. He will bowl the odd good ball anyway in an over, so we need to score runs. We will try and do that in the next game."

Though Mathews conceded Sri Lanka's execution of their strokes was poor, he made no apologies for their aggressive approach on the final day. Three batsmen fell playing aggressive shots, and though Sri Lanka's situation seemed dire, they kept looking for runs instead of attempting to block out the match.

"We didn't bat for the time to be honest because the wicket was pretty demanding and it was the fourth innings. Ashwin was putting a lot of pressure from one end, and from the other end the rest of the bowlers put a lot of pressure on us. We couldn't just hang in. I think the approach would be the same - to score runs on whatever day you bat on or the innings we bat in. We just have to plan to score so that you put your negative thoughts away and keep going. That was our intention.

"But 413 wasn't a realistic target to be achieved on the final day of a Test match. But it's just that we wanted to approach it in a positive way. At least get some positive thoughts and go into the next game."

Of the three Sri Lanka greats to retire in the last six years, Kumar Sangakkara was the only man to lose his farewell Test. Mathews said the loss was particularly disappointing, as a result. "I regret that we couldn't give Kumar a winning farewell. He's been an amazing servant of the game. It really pains me that we couldn't give him a good farewell, but I promise him that we will play the next game well and try to win the series for him."