Reaction from Australia captain Steve Smith after Sri Lanka won the first Test by 106 runs in Pallekele on Saturday (30th July).

SOUNDBITE: (English) Steve Smith, Australia captain:

(on the match and how he'd like his side to improve in certain areas)

"I thought we bowled pretty well the first innings, to get them out for 117, I thought that was a pretty good effort. I think in our batting we lacked a bit of discipline in our first innings. I thought we were in a good position to get a much bigger lead than 86, so we didn't push on there as much as we would have liked. Then it gets to the third innings of the match, I thought that we didn't do a great deal wrong, I thought Kusal Mendis played an exceptional innings to score 176 and I guess that kind of took the game away from us. I think from our point of view it was disappointing to lose Steven O'Keefe in the 49th over. He was looking very ominous out there at every stage and looked like he was going to take lots of wickets, so I guess from that aspect it was tough losing him, but having said that, we still have to find ways to get the team out and we weren't able to do that. 267 (to win) obviously, on a day four, five wicket, against quality spinners was going to be a tough task and we just weren't up to it."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Steve Smith, Australia captain:

(on the result and how disappointed he is)

"It is disappointing. I said before the game that we haven't played overly well in subcontinental conditions for a while now and it's something that I guess under my captaincy that I sort of want to change. There were glimpses throughout this game that we've improved in some aspects, but I think we just let ourselves down in a lot as well."