Dyson elated over Sri Lanka's showing

John Dyson, Sri Lanka's coach, has praised his team for their growing mental resilience after they turned around a first-innings deficit to complete an emphatic victory in the opening Test against Pakistan at Faisalabad last weekend.

Earlier in the year, Sri Lanka had watched in frustration as Australia showed off their legendary mental toughness by overcoming first-innings deficits in three consecutive Tests to complete a series whitewash, the first by any team in Sri Lanka.

Dyson sensed that those defeats had made the team tougher. An AFP report quoted him as saying, "We have learnt from our defeats against Australia as we were in an awkward position at Faisalabad and we fought our way out of it. We had a good series against Australia and they beat us. I think we played very good cricket but they are a good enough team to fight out of awkward positions and win the match. I am pleased that the boys have shown they are able to do that too.

"I think we fought back well from the position of 9 for 3 and our batsmen, led by [Thilan] Samaraweera, fought well to give us a chance to set up the rest of the match," he said. "Sanath Jayasuriya's innings was absolutely fantastic and is the sort of innings you look for from your champion player."

Dyson was now hopeful that the winning momentum will be continued in the final Test at Karachi which starts on Thursday. Sri Lanka are now looking for a hat-trick of series wins in Pakistan after victories on their previous tours in 1995 and 1999.

A series win in Pakistan would be memorable, but Dyson was anxious for the team to prove itself outside the subcontinent. "We have identified that winning outside Sri Lanka is necessary to raise the profile of Sri Lankan cricket and we must also play well in England, Australia and South Africa."