Sri Lanka batting coach Marvan Atapattu is not giving up hope that his side can still salvage something from the Boxing Day Test with Australia.
The tourists appear to be in a hopeless position at stumps on day two at the MCG, as Australia reached 8-440 at the close of play to lead by 284 overall.
But Atapattu put on a brave face when he fronted the media at the end of the day and insisted all is not lost.
"It is a long way from ending this game," he said.
"We still have to have a good batting innings in us from the time that we hopefully get them out tomorrow (Friday) in the first session.
"And we will see what we can do from there."
Atapattu said he was disappointed with how many of his batsmen played in the opening innings when Sri Lanka could only manage 156, but expects a much better performance the second time around.
"It is unfortunate that we failed to deliver on a big day yesterday," he said.
"We have got the capability and we have got the batsmen who are capable enough to make big scores and get us some good partnerships going.
"So hopefully they can put it right in the next innings they bat."
Atapattu added his team only had itself to blame for missing chances in the field that could have already seen Australia dismissed.
Sri Lanka dropped Michael Clarke once late on the opening day's play and then Kumar Sangakkara missed a tough stumping chance early on Thursday, while Shane Watson was also given two lives by the tourists.
Clarke went on to reach triple figures for the first time in an MCG Test (106), while Watson registered a fine 83 and Atapattu believes the game could easily be poised more evenly at this stage.
"When it comes to dropped catches, no one intends to drop catches on a cricket field," Atapattu said.
"What has happened has happened and it is unfortunate.
"We let them off the hook yesterday in the evening when we had them three wickets down and today before Clarke got into his stride and then Watson after that.
"If we had held on to those two it would have been different, but that is the way it goes and we have got ourselves to blame."
Atapattu also revealed the hamstring injury Chanaka Welegedara picked up while bowling on Thursday is likely to rule him out for the remainder of the Test series, while the former Sri Lankan skipper said Prasanna Jayawardene (thumb) was still a good chance of batting in the second innings.
First Posted 27 December, 2012 6:48PM AEST
