Still room for improvement: SL coach

Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore said his team could still improve after an encouraging showing on day one of the second Test against South Africa on Friday.

After being put into bat by South Africa captain Shaun Pollock, Sri Lanka reached 263 for six at the close, with veteran left hander Hashan Tillakaratne nearing his 10th Test century on 82 not out.

"It was a bit better, I thought," Whatmore said. "We were very keen do a bit better than what we showed in the previous Test. There's still room for improvement.

"The area that I'm unhappy about is getting good starts and then getting out. I'm happy with the runs we scored but I thought we could have scored them with perhaps a couple of wickets less appearing on the scoreboard."

Whatmore said Tillakaratne's performance was very much in character with the 35 year-old's reputation as a fighter.

"Hashan has been batting quite well over the last few months and it didn't really surprise me that he resisted the opposition for quite a while. He likes playing long innings and looked like he was enjoying it out there. His contribution has been very valuable and we hope that there's a bit more in his batting tomorrow," he said.

South Africa coach Eric Simons was left to rue Jacques Kallis's costly drop at second slip off Pollock's bowling when Tillakaratne was on 35.

"If Jacques had held on it might have been a different story, but they're still in a situation where things can go boom, boom tomorrow morning and be out for under 300," Simons said. "If you win the toss and put the opposition in you do want to bowl them out for under 250.

"We didn't do as well as we have before in my time in charge in terms of sticking to game plans. It's notable that someone like Shaun (Pollock) was the most successful by sticking to the game plan.

"He was able to dry up the runs by hitting the right areas and he picked up two wickets and had the catch dropped as well. We tended to lose the plot a bit too quickly and get frustrated."

But rather than criticise his own players, Simons was happy to credit the Sri Lankans with a much improved showing after their innings and 64-run defeat in the first Test at the Wanderers on Sunday.

"We're certainly not depressed about what's happened. Today a lot of credit must go to the Sri Lankans. They've gone away and thought about things and they've come back today and played really well," Simons said.

Mail Cricket Editor