"I think their plan was to bowl wide yorkers, but the execution was poor. Let's give credit to Rohit Sharma. That was a stunning knock. 390 was too much for us," said Samaraweera after the 141-run loss to India.
India ended up with 392 for four but Sri Lanka should have restricted them under 330, said Samaraweera.
"The wide yorkers backfired. We became very predictable. We didn't have a backup plan. But for the third game we will come up with counter moves.
The batting coach was all praise for India's stand-in skipper Rohit, who scored his third double hundred in ODIs and second against Sri Lanka.
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"One hundred percent," Samaraweera said when asked if it was one of the best knocks he saw.
Sri Lanka's key player Angelo Mathews scored a hundred in a losing cause and also bowled four overs. He is back to bowling again but Samaraweera said there is still some time before Mathews starts bowling multiple spells.
"The strategy we have for him is that he will not bowl more than five overs. That is the plan. We are bringing him back to full strength slowly. We are not expecting 10 overs from him (as he is coming back from injury)," he said.
"In Dharamsala, he batted well and it seems to be working. His strength is playing straight. So sweep is last option for him.