Sri Lanka coach Nic Pothas admitted that his side endured a disappointing start to the second Test in Nagpur. The visitors were bowled out for 205 and India ended the day trailing by 194 runs with nine wickets in hand. “It was a disappointing day for us. No demons on that wicket and we didn’t bat as well as we should have done,” Pothas told journalists
The batsman attended some lose shots that led to their dismissals. This included captain Dinesh Chandimal, who tried a switch hit and ended up being dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin for LBW. His wicket was part of a collapse that started when Niroshan Dickwella had been dismissed. Chandimal had shared a 62-run stand with Dimuth Karunaratne and followed it up with a partnership of 38 with Dickwella.
“We let ourselves down from that point onwards,” said Pothas. Sri Lanka went on to lose six wickets for 45 runs after that. “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,” said Pothas referring to Dickwella trying to lift Ravindra Jadeja. He ended up being caught at mid-off. “I don’t want to stop him [from] being himself. 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.”
Pothas said that he has no qualms about India preparing themselves for their upcoming South Africa tour during this series and asking for pitches to be prepared accordingly. “From our point of view that we are only concentrating on ourselves and playing best cricket,” said Pothas, “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.”
