The second Test match between India and Sri Lanka at the P Sara Oval is nicley poised at the end of Day 2. One would believe that India have their noses ahead slightly as Sri Lanka are still trailing by 253 runs.
India's bowling coach Bharat Arun was happy with the discipline Indian bowlers showed on the second day and opined that they are looking for a lead of 100 runs, which could create enough pressure on the Lankans.
"We are probably looking for a lead of about 100 runs... If we get a lead of 100 runs on this track, it is beginning to wear and there was sign of spinners extracting some turn. The track was a lot harder than what we had at Galle. It has a lot more bounce to offer as the game progresses, but not so much turn. To do well in Test matches, you need to be bowling with a lot of discipline. This is something that we have worked really hard on. Today was there for it to see. Restricting them to under three an over, it was pretty good bowling," Arun said in an interview to ESPN Cricinfo on Friday.
India started the day with 319 for the loss of six wickets and ended their innings on 393 runs. Wriddhiman Saha pulled India to a good total eventually after the loss of Rohit Sharma off the last ball of Day 1.
Umesh Yadav bowled brilliantly to dismiss Dimuth Karunaratne off his first delivery and Sri Lanka were immediately pushed on to the backfoot. Kaushal Silva would consider himself to be lucky as he was dismissed off a no-ball from Stuart Binny. Later Kumar Sangakkara and Silva rebuilt the Lankan innings but Sangakkara could not build on to his good start. He was dismissed for a score of 32 when Ajinkya Rahane took a sharp catch in the first slip off Ravichandran Ashwin's delivery. Kaushal Silva was dismissed by Amit Mishra after the former completed his half century.
Yadav got the chance over Varun Aaron in the second Test match because of his control over the red cherry. Aaron proved to be expensive in the first Test match at Galle and thus Arun suggested to go with Yadav.
"There was dry grass and also the fact that the ball could reverse on this track and Umesh is pretty good with reverse swing, that was the main choice for Umesh over Varun," Arun added.
