``It was a new side of Sanath Jayasuriya we saw. He is known for going after the bowling, but on this occasion he showed a lot of patience and different character altogether,'' said Tendulkar in a post-match press conference.
``I wouldn't want to take away the credit from Sanath and Roshan because it requires a lot of courage to bat for two days. It is a very, very difficult task in Test cricket to bat for two days. Not many guys in the world have done it,'' said Tendulkar.
``The pitch could have been a little helpful for the bowlers. It was a dead track and the bowlers did not have any assistance at all. I will give a lot of credit to my spinners because it is not an easy job to bowl 70 overs each,'' he said.
``Jayasuriya is definitely a world class player. Mahanama with his technique, likes to hang around, but we still managed to give only 250 runs on the fourth day,'' the Indian captain said.
Tendulkar said the only reason why he declared was to force a win.
``We played a few shots which wouldn't have in normal circumstances because we wanted to accelerate and try to make a good match and put some pressure on Sri Lanka, but they batted really well,'' said Tendulkar.
The Indian captain said that it not a good experience to have 950 plus runs scored against his team.
``It has never happened before. It was a terrible toss to win. We should have batted second,'' he said.
Jayasuriya and Mahanama batted for 13 minutes over two days to produce a world record partnership of 576 for any wicket in Test cricket. Jayasuriya went on to make a memorable 340 and Mahanama 225 helping Sri Lanka to a world record total of 952 for six wickets.
``Records are meant to be broken, but your focus should be to win the game. If records are broken automatically, that's fine, but I wouldn't ask anybody from my team to go for any particular record. We are here to win and not break records,'' said Tendulkar.
``Most of us were keen to see Sanath break the world record. The players and the manager were more worried and nervous than Sanath on the final morning,'' said Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga.
``What I told Roshan was to try and stay till Sanath breaks the record because we knew that when a partnership breaks automatically, the other person might get out,'' said Ranatunga.
Mahanama got out in the third over of the final morning and in the following over, Jayasuriya was dismissed, 35 runs short of Brian Lara's world record score of 375.
``We never thought about any records. Our first aim was to avert the follow-on. We got to know about the record when we came for tea on the fourth day when Arjuna said that we were some nine runs away from it. At that point only we got to know we were in sight of a world record,'' said Jayasuriya.
``It was a good opportunity for me to break the world record score of 375, but I didn't actually have it in mind. It was very hard to concentrate especially on the fourth day after lunch. The ball from Chauhan bounced a bit more than I expected,'' said Jayasuriya.
The left-handed opener thanked Mahanama from playing a supporting role in helping him to his triple century.
``The support I received from Roshan cannot be described in words. We spoke to each other often and rotated the strike so that we were able to bat for long,'' said Jayasuriya.
``I feel great because a lot of people wrote me off saying that I had lost my strokes and all that. This was the best way to prove them wrong,'' said Mahanama.
``The other point I proved was that I had overcome cramps. People always ask about my cramps and not about the runs I scored or about the catches taken,'' said Mahanama.
``I was disappointed I had let Sanath down when I got out. I thought I should have stayed there to help him achieve the world record,'' he said.
Mendis said on principal The Management does not inform the players about any records. ``If there is anything around we just tell them,'' said Mendis.
``We had our ups and downs in Test cricket, but I think we have come back pretty well in the batting. We are very competitive now, but we'll have to work hard at our bowling and try to win matches,'' said Ranatunga.
``The boys are very keen to do well in the Test matches now. It is the most important thing to have come into our heads,'' he said. Sri Lanka names team for second test v India
COLOMBO, Aug 7 (Reuter) - Sri Lanka on Thursday named a 14-member squad for the second and last test against India starting in Colombo on Saturday.
The first test ended in a draw on Wednesday.
SRI LANKA (from): Arjuna Ranatunga (Captain), Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Roshan Mahanama, Chaminda Vaas, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardena, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Kumar Dharmasena, Ruwan Kalpage, Upul Chandana, Sajeeva de Silva.