We did not deserve to win : Jayawardene

Perth: Angelo Mathews almost pulled off a sensational victory for Sri Lanka in the cricket tri-series match against Australia here on Friday, but visiting captain Mahela Jayawardene said his side did not deserve to win.

Mathews (64) very nearly pulled off a sensational win for Sri Lanka before his side fell short by just five runs. Chasing a modest target of 232, the islanders were in the dumps at 180 for nine in the 45th over before Mathews (64), in Dhammika Prasad`s company, staged staged a remarkable fightback with a 46-run last-wicket stand to give a scare at the Australians at the WACA. "We made a few mistakes, couple of lost catches, we made too many mistakes, we didn`t deserve to win the match," a disappointed Jayawardene said after the match. "Great effort from Angelo, but we gave away too many wickets in the middle overs to lose our way. We did the hard work with the ball, but we did not get a couple of big stands with the bat," he said. "They (Australians) put a lot of pressure on our guys. Angelo is one who likes to finish games for us, he handles his situations much better," Jayawardene added. Victorious Australian captain Michael Clarke lauded his bowlers for not allowing the Lankans run away with the match. He, however, said that Australia were probably 30 runs short while batting and that would have made a tough score to chase on a difficult WACA wicket. "Our bowlers deserved a lot of credit. We were probably 25-30 runs short on that wicket. (Mitchell) Starc will learn a lot from this," he said. "The wicket was a bit slow, no one went on to get a hundred today. I felt a little bogged down with the bat but tried to hang in there with the other guys," said Clarke, who was also adjudged man-of-the-match for his 57-run knock and one wicket with the ball. PTI