It wasn't just Jayawardene but everybody present here in the stadium was surprised at the way the Bangladesh batsmen batted in their second innings.

"Why is this guy (Javed Omar) selected for one-day side? Is their any technique in his batting?" inquired former Sri Lankan cricketer and now commentator Ranjit Fernando when he was the opener's Javed Omar's poor defence from the press box during his painstaking 22.

The way former Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar came down to charge Muttiah Muralidaran was judged as the 'ugliest batting' while it was asked 'when will this guy (Nafees) learn how to handle a quality off-spinner?'

All the other top-order batsmen including Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful, Rajin Saleh, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tushar Imran and even the batting of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza came under serious criticism from every corner.

And the common question was 'is this Test cricket?'

The home skipper, who had earlier raised questions regarding the determination and seriousness of the Bangladeshi players towards the longer-version game, was however not as straight-forward as the local media people or the former Lankan cricketers including Russel Arnold.

"I am surprised the way we finished the series especially today (Saturday) after two days of rain. Actually the performance of Bangladesh batsmen in the whole series surprised me. Mainly the way we bowled in the first innings and scored 470 runs in a day put pressure on them," Jayawardene explained.

"When you perform on that level, it is always tough for a team like Bangladesh to keep up. Credit should go to my whole team, the way we played, the way we executed our gameplan was brilliant. We should not take anything away from them," he said with a bit of sympathy.

On the other hand, Muttiah Muralidaran who once again proved to be too good for the Bangla7deshi batsmen highlighted his team's success and not his individual achievement.

"If you are winning a match in less than two and a half days (discounting the rain breaks), it is special. The way we batted and bowled in the first innings was simply amazing. We played good cricket and didn't allow Bangladesh to raise their heads. We wanted to knock them off every time we bowled and batted and that's what happened," said the champion off-spinner who became only the second bowler to achieve the 700-wicket milestone after Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne.

"Taking 700 wickets is a big achievement. I think I can achieve a little bit more than the world record. I hope to play until the next World Cup in 2011 and the challenge is that before I retire, I am thinking of taking 1000 Test wickets," said the 35-year-old spin wizard.

He said that he was looking forward to their next assignment in Australia in November.

"I want to go to Australia and try and win the series because we have never won it there. Also I have not taken five wickets in an innings in Australia. They are the No 1 team in the world but we can also be better than them if we play to our strengths" he added.