Kandy, Aug 4: Chasing 295 for the win, the beleaguered Sri Lankan side did their best to turn things around in the fifth ODI. But some irresponsible batting at the end cost the hosts what could have been a morale-boosting victory. Stand-in skipper Angelo Mathews led the side valiantly in the absence of Mahela Jayawardene, but the 20-run loss capped off a disappointing ODI series for the hosts.

Excerpts from Mathews’ interview during the post-match presentation ceremony.

On the youngsters performing in the absence of senior players

It was encouraging to see youngsters like Lahiru Thirimanne and Jeevan Mendis taking on the challenge and taking responsibility and trying to finish off the game. But, unfortunately we fell short by 20 runs and also we gave away a bit more runs in the field. It was just one of those days.

On whether the Indian batting was too strong for their attack

We know that the Indians have a very good batting line-up and we knew that from the start of the series. But we made too many mistakes.

On Jeevan Mendis’ performances

He works really hard and he is a wonderful asset for us and Thirimanne as well.

On what is next for Sri Lanka

We have got SLPL just before the ICC World T20.