Internet Desk: India skipper Virat Kohli was very happy with his team’s effort after they thrashed Sri Lanka with an innings and 53 runs in the Second Test at Colombo today.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Kohli said, “I am very happy with the way team performed, Saha was agile and safe behind the stumps. He conceded only 4 byes, which shows his level of skills. Rahane and Pujara – two of our best Test players got runs, and then KL at top of the order and Jadeja lower down the order also got runs.”
On being asked about enforcing the follow-on, Kohli said the pitch was helping the spinners and they had a good lead under their belt and that helped him to take the decision of enforcing the follow-on.
“The way wicket behaved and the nature of the pitch led us to enforcing the follow-on. I am not a big fan of enforcing the follow on, because if the pitch breaks down, then even chasing 150 becomes difficult. We did not want to give the opposition any chance.”
The hosts fought back in style in the second innings and Kohli said that he expected this from the Lankan’s as this kind of performance make a team better.
“If you play Test cricket at international level, you are going to face tough, you can’t expect to win every session. But we enjoyed the tough time, it makes you better as a team and as a cricketer. Patience is important for success at this level and we showed that.”
Sri Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal conceded that the match was lost in the first innings,
“We were outplayed in the first innings with the bat and the ball. We will take positves out of this game – the way Mendis and Karunaratne batted in the second innings were good. We missed Gunaratne, he has performed consistently for us over the last year.”
Talking about the decision of not going in with an extra bowler,Chandimal said that it was done to maintain the balance of the team.
Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged the man of the match for his brilliant spell. “The ball wasn’t turning much in the first innings, but there were spots in the second innings specially in the middle of the pitch. Mendis played really well, tackling the sweep shot is always a challenge but that’s when a bowler needs to change his line and length, and also the field placements,” said Jadeja.