GALLE, Sri Lanka (Reuters)
Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya was modest about his 105-ball century against India and preferred instead to praise the efforts of his team mates.

"I had no plan to go after the bowler every ball, but today I decided if I get a loose one I will score," Jayasuriya said after making 111 in a total of 138 deliveries on the second day of the first Test.

"When I was there I got the width and we batted a lot more positively than India," added Jayasuriya, who when he reached three figures in 105 balls had scored 66 in boundaries. He said the Indian bowlers maintained a particular line, but he still found enough room outside the offstump to score freely.

Jayasuriya was pleased with paceman Dilhara Fernando for his haul of five wickets for 42 which restricted India to 187 all out in their first innings. "It was a great performance overall, bowling and batting. Dilhara bowled really well and Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) also, it was a good effort."

He said Fernando made good use of a grassy pitch to claim quick wickets to complete his second five-wicket haul in Tests. But Fernando himself said the pitch was not of much help and rated his first five-wicket haul, in South Africa last December, above the Galle performance because it had come against better batsmen. India are without both Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman because of injuries.

Fernando returned his personal best of 5-42, having claimed 5-98 in Durban in the first Test of a three-match series which Sri Lanka lost 2-0. The Colombo bowler attributed his success more to mistakes made by the Indian batsmen. "Although there was grass, it didn't really help the fast bowlers. I took wickets mainly through batsmen's mistakes," he said.

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