Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara acknowledges the crowd after scoring 150 runs against India on the second day of their second Test match in Colombo.
Lambasting the lifeless pitch that produced a dull high-scoring draw against Sri Lanka, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday said the track made it seem that the bowlers were there just to get smashed all over the park.
Sri Lanka piled up 642 declared before India
replied in similar fashion to post 707 on the board in a rather disappointing track which offered nothing to the bowlers.
“If not for the fast bowlers, at least for the spinners we can make Test cricket interesting. It doesn't have to be bouncy. In this game, it was all about the batsmen and the bowlers were just getting wacked all over the park,” Dhoni said.
Dhoni's opposite number Kumar Sangakkara too felt the bowlers were made to work very hard by the pitch.
“It was not easy like MS said it was hard work for bowlers but I am very impressed with our bowling. We were always trying to attack and gave India a tough time,” said the Lankan captain.
Dhoni said he never thought of making the proceedings any interesting by declaring while still trailing by 100-odd runs.
“If the opponent scores 600 odd runs, I think we did well in the way we responded but we should have scored 50 more runs. At the end of the day I am quite happy. For the first time in the series, we bowled second with a lot of wear and tear and the bowlers performed well.
“We were 100 odd runs behind and had we allowed the Lankans to bat they would have got 300 plus and they could have gone for an outright win. We also thought of giving our bowlers some rest,” he said.
Sangakkara, meanwhile, hoped the next match would be more interesting but said his team would not think about the number one Test ranking which would go the hosts' way if they win the series 2-0.