Galle: Centurion Dinesh Chandimal said that his plan of countering the Indian spinners worked well as he helped Sri Lanka fightback from a precarious position to stay alive in the first Test here today. Sri Lanka rode on Chandimal's career-best 162 not out to post 367, giving the visitors a winning target of 176.

Registering his fourth Test ton, Chandimal admitted that his well though-out moves paid rich dividends. "Before I went out to bat I was thinking in the dressing room what I was going to do in the middle. I was going to reverse sweep and sweep to put pressure on the bowlers. I did that. I'm really happy with the way I handled their spinners. It was difficult to bat on this kind of pitch. I tried to rotate the strike. I tried to put the pressure on the bowler so I could get a loose delivery from him," said Chandimal.