After putting Sri Lanka in the box seat in the first Test against India here at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, Sri Lanka’s hero on day three Mahela Jayawardene spoke to the media on his knock, the team’s chances of winnings, India’s negative tactics and on a host of other topics. Here are the excerpts.

Question: This is your 14th Test hundred since becoming captain in 2006.

Has the captaincy brought more responsibility into your game?

Mahela Jayawardene

It’s true that with the captaincy came a bit more responsibility. But after playing for so many years, I have realized what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to manage my innings and how to build an innings.

Even before that I was doing right things, but I was making too many mistakes. Once you get to a stage, you realize how to pace your innings and how to attack and how to play on different surfaces.

Question: Sri Lanka came to India determined to win their first Test here.

Has the ground work for that elusive win been done?

Mahela Jayawardene

When we came we had a very realistic plan of beating India with the team we had and with the way we have been playing Test cricket in the last two three years. So it was one of our goals. With the way we started, it was disappointing to let India get away after that excellent start. But they did bat well. Rahul (Dravid) in particular along with M.S. Dhoni. We still knew the wicket was good and Dilshan batted superbly giving us the momentum. He took on the two spinners and we kept on going with the same momentum. Thilan and I enjoyed a very good partnership and Angelo probably was a bit unlucky. Prasanna hung around with me. Maybe we were a bit too slow towards the end, but the important thing was to not to lose wickets as we had ample time. If we can build up a good lead we can create opportunities.

Question: How do you rate your hundred?

Mahela Jayawardene

For me any hundred is a hundred. Given the situation and playing against

India in India that’s high up in my efforts. But the thing is I have only played three Tests here and this is my fourth. I had a couple of fifties here in the last tour and I was disappointed and I was determined to get my first hundred here this time. I am very pleased and the team’s situation is very good as well.

Question: Were the Indians negative in their approach today?

Mahela Jayawardene

You probably should ask them. I wasn’t concentrating on that. It was very hot out there. We knew if we could grind them the effort wasn’t going to be there. It was important to concentrate very hard and we knew that once they come to that stage we could get runs off them. So we had to be patient, which we did today. They were trying to not to give us much of a bigger lead. You can even pick up wickets in that manner. We didn’t play too many shots and we played the way we wanted to play and waited for the bad balls and once they switched back again we managed to get more runs.

Teams use different tactics and you have to adjust accordingly.

Question: How much of an influence did you have on Prasanna?

Mahela Jayawardene

We worked on a few things against different bowlers. He batted well today.

He has the ability, but it’s just applying yourself out there. That’s been his problem. He’s got lot of talent. But he showed what he’s capable today. It’s all about handling different situations and scoring in different areas. I thought Prasanna did that today,

Question: When’s the declaration going to come?

Mahela Jayawardene

Will see how it goes. Kumar (Sangakkara) and the team management will have to decide on that. We set a few goals today and achieved them. We should set same targets tomorrow and have to achieve them.

Question: How’s the wicket playing?

Mahela Jayawardene