Sri Lanka coach John Dyson hailed Mahela Jayawardene's innings of 237 in the first Test against South Africa as "magnificent".
Jayawardene powered Sri Lanka to a total of 486 with his 410-ball knock spanning eight-and-a-half hours and including 25 fours and three sixes.
"It was a magnificent innings," Dyson told reporters after the second day.
"I can't think of a single chance that he gave during the course of the innings -- he just batted beautifully," he added.
"He was aggressive in his approach and he ran really well between the wickets.
"We were expecting to get between the 350 to 400 but that was fantastic partnership between Mahela [Jayawardene] and Chaminda [Vaas]."
"We are now very happy with how the day as gone."
Acting captain Mark Boucher, standing in for Graeme Smith who was laid low with a virus, remained upbeat after South Africa closed on 82 without loss.
"I thought the guys fought back really well," Boucher told reporters. "They struck a nice balance between attack and defence."
"We said at the beginning of the series that if you go out there and wait for a ball to spit, you are fighting a losing battle," he added.
"We are not out of the game if we can bat really well and put 550 to 600 on the board, which we have done before."
"It was always going to be tougher this morning in these conditions with our guys having not played much cricket in the last two months.
"There were a few stiff bodies around."
"Having said that, I didn't think we bowled too badly, they just came out and played a little bit more aggressively today.
"We thought that if we could knock them over for under 350 we could be a good chance dominate the match but things don't always go to plan in test cricket."
