Nic Pothas, the Sri Lankan coach, expressed his agony after first day’s play of Nagpur Test against India and said we let ourselves down. Sri Lanka was bundled out for 205 under 80 overs after electing to bat first on a green surface.
India was missing the services of their spearheads Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami. However, rest of the bowling department didn’t let anyone feel this as they made Lankan batsmen dance on their tunes.
“It was a disappointing day for us. No demons on that wicket and we didn’t bat as well as we should have done,” said Pothas.
Ravichandran Ashwin was the star performer with a four-fer and headed toward 300 Test wickets. Dinesh Chandimal was one of his victims, who perished while playing a poor switch-hit.
“The captain made a decision at that time. We empower the batsmen to make decisions at the middle. He obviously felt that that was the way to score runs at that point, but it didn’t come off. I probably say that maybe the timing of that shot was perhaps not at its best. But you cannot be there forever and block it,” added Pothas.
While talking about Sri Lanka’s slow batting approach, he quoted “First session of a Test match, you try to set a base and try to bat for a long time. You try and bat for a day and a bit if you win the toss. New-ball spells are always tough and you try to blunt that. I thought India bowled well, I don’t think there were too many free balls going that we missed out on, but we adapted after lunch.”
At one point, they were 160 for 4 with Niroshan Dickwella and Chandimal in the middle. They let this opportunity slipped from their hands and lost last six wickets for 45 runs.
“We let ourselves down from that point onwards. You can’t say that Niroshan Dickwella gets out and the rest can get out. Dickwella is a positive batter and that’s a shot he plays well. I don’t want to stop him [from] being himself,” Pothas told journalists.
“I want people to bat the way they bat and he is kind of player who transfers pressure back to the bowlers. We have to execute our plans. The wicket has got no demons. It hasn’t spun, it hasn’t seamed. There were six straight ball dismissals. Ashwin and Jadeja have got wickets bowling stump to stump. At this level you can’t be missing straight balls.”
Answering his take over India’s demand of green wickets ahead of tough South Africa tour, he said “That’s a professional environment. They are planning. They are looking forward to another series that is coming up. They have every right in their country to prepare the wickets they want. That’s what every side do.”
“From our point of view that we are only concentrating on ourselves and playing best cricket. The Indian team is doing exactly that preparing for a series. That’s their prerogative and that’s their right. I have no problem with that,” Lankan coach concluded.
Team India came too far in the second Test against Sri Lanka after Indian batsmen made merry with the pitch. Despite losing KL Rahul early, both Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara made runs with ease. In the process, they scored their 10th and 14th Test ton respectively. India has 107-run lead after day two with Pujara(121) and Kohli(54) are in the middle.
