An unlikely victory for Sri Lanka over Pakistan in the first Test at Galle capped a great week for captain Kumar Sangakkara.

An unlikely victory for Sri Lanka over Pakistan in the first Test at Galle capped a great week captain Kumar Sangakkara.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and fast bowler Thilan Thushara effected a stunning turnaround as Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 50 runs on the fourth day to take the lead in the three-Test series.

Pakistan needed only 97 runs at the start of the day to overhaul a target of 168 and had eight wickets in hand to achieve the task.

But Herath and Thushara struck early blows to reduce Pakistan to 80 for six inside the first seven overs.

Herath removed both overnight batsmen, Mohammad Yousuf and Salman Butt, in his first over and wrapped up the victory with two more wickets as Pakistan were skittled out for 117 inside the first session.

Sangakkara, whose wife gave birth to twins last week, was overjoyed with the victory in his first Test as captain after taking the reins from Mahela Jayawardene.

Sri Lanka register dramatic win 

"It does feel great," Sangakkara said. "I was lucky to be home for the birth of the twins and you can't top that feeling.

"But to come here and win the first Test really made it a great week."

Sri Lanka had chased the game for the better part of the last three days, but Herath, a last-minute replacement for the injured Muttiah Muralitharan, turned the game on its head with his spell in the morning.

Sangakkara said the team had begun the day with the belief that they could still win.

"It's been a rollercoaster ride and over the last two days we spent a lot of time thinking," he said.

"The consensus at the start of today was to go out there, make sure we hit the right areas and try bowl a lot of balls in the channels.

"This wicket has been great for Test cricket and there is always something for everyone.

"The effort from the team was commendable, but especially Herath (who) flew straight in here from England and (impressed with) the effort he put in, (as well as) Angelo Mathews in his first Test and Thushara.

SX4 Performer: Rangana Herath

"The rest of the guys too chipped in at crucial times and Mahela had to baby-sit me a few times through out the innings, but overall it's been a fantastic job," he said.

Sangakkara explained the decision to give the second over of the session to Herath, saying: "We made the decision to bowl Herath first up this morning last evening.

"We had a good long look at the way the Pakistan batsmen were playing.

"We also saw last evening that Thushara was troubling all the batsmen.

"Herath was bowling pretty well especially to Yousuf and that was the plan at the beginning.

"We had great bowling options in (Nuwan) Kulasekara, (Ajantha) Mendis and Angelo to fall back on, but we didn't expect such a great start to the day.

"Credit must go to all the guys for the effort and belief they put in."

It's all about numbers

Sangakkara, however, said there was plenty of room for improvement before the teams meet again in Colombo on Saturday.

"We have a lot of work to do before the second Test, especially on our batting," he added.

"We've got to figure out where our off-stumps are, what lines the Pakistan bowlers are targeting and get our minds back to Test cricket.

"We are overjoyed with the win, but we are also mindful of the fact that we have a lot of work to do."

Pakistan captain Younus Khan was struggling to work out how his side had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

"The thought of losing this game didn't even occur to me because we were in a good position at the start this morning," he said.

"The thing which did us in was the lack of a partnership.

"If we had got one good partnership of about 50 to 60 runs we could have made it.

"But all credit to Sangakkara and his bowlers. They put pressure on us early and forced us into making mistakes."

Younus defended his decision to bowl first after winning the toss, despite Galle having a history of teams struggling in the fourth innings.

"It really didn't matter whether we batted first or second on this track," he said.

"We just didn't get our basics right.

"No one else clicked"

"We had both Yousuf and Butt in good shape at the start and were needed only 97 to win.

"I don't think batting was a problem on this pitch. We just didn't apply ourselves well enough."

The Pakistan captain, however, was confident his team would pick themselves up from this disappointment.

"The series is wide open and everyone knows we are capable of bouncing back. We will catch up in this series," he said.