Reaction from Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews after his side won the first Test against Australia by 106 runs in Pallekele on Saturday (30th July).

SOUNDBITE: (English) Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka captain:

(on the victory and the collective effort of the team)

"After a rough, tough 6 to 8 months, we needed that victory and that gives us a lot of confidence going forward. As a young team, it was a great performance, especially after the first day (Sri Lanka were bowled out for 117). I thought we were disappointing with out batting on the first day, but credit should go to this young man here (points at Kusal Mendis), who batted brilliantly to get his maiden Test century against a very strong Australian team and you know, Dhananjaya de Silva contributed with his bat and the ball, (Dinesh) Chandimal when needed, he got a few runs for us and it was a collective effort by these batsmen. I mean we had to rally around him (Mendis), he was batting the best out of the lot and we needed a 200-plus lead on that wicket. It was assisting the spinners. It was a great relief. Rangana Herath once again proved his brilliance and also (Lakshan) Sandakan, coming into his first game, it was a brilliant effort by him, so it was overall, a very pleasing effort and we're humbled by the victory, but there's still a long way to go in the series."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka captain:

(on beating Australia for the first time since 1999)

"After 17 years, it's very pleasing to hear that we've beaten Australia. It was... credit should go to the whole team, the way they fought and the way they showed their character against a very strong Australian team. Whether it's home or away, we had to play our best cricket to beat the Aussies and we did, especially after the first day's play, we had to come back hard and strong and we did that."