Mahendra Singh Dhoni said whenever the Indians developed a partnership, the Sri Lankan bowlers produced lethal deliveries to get wickets. “We struggled to build partnerships,” Dhoni conceded.
The Indian captain said Lasith Malinga's bowling made a big difference to the Sri Lankan attack. “The kind of action he has, a batsman can never really settle against him.”
Dhoni added, “Against Malinga, a batsman has to start all over again, even if it is his third or fourth spell. It's difficult to get adjusted to his action. Normally, he brings the ball into the right-handers. In this match, he was also swinging it away. If you do not pick him, you are in trouble.”
Talking about Muttiah Muralitharan's achievement, he said, “I think he did really well. You do not want to give wickets to the main bowlers of the other side. Like the Sri Lankans who would not want Sehwag to score. But, at times, these cricketers get the better of you.
Happy for Murali
“They bowl beautifully and put pressure on the batsmen before dismissing them. I think Murali bowled really well to get those eight wickets. I am really happy that he has got 800 wickets in his Test career. It is not easy to bowl when there is only one wicket left and you are one short of such a major landmark.”
Dhoni said the turning point was when Muralitharan dismissed Yuvraj Singh and him when they were putting together a partnership in the first innings. “Murali got both of us with very good deliveries. Otherwise, we could have avoided the follow-on and gone on to save the Test. In the second innings, Malinga kept producing good deliveries at vital stages.”
Dhoni defended his spinners. “I think they bowled a lot when the conditions were flat,” he said. He added that paceman Abhimanyu Mithun impressed in his first Test.
Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara said, “I felt we would win when Malinga dismissed Dravid and Tendulkar late on day four and then Murali removed Yuvraj. That was when we were in with a great chance.”
Balanced attack
He also felt Sri Lanka was not playing enough Test cricket. “We are playing a couple of matches here, a couple there. Right now, we have a great and balanced attack in both pace and spin. I think we can do better away from home.”
Talking about the ICC Test rankings, he said the Future Tours Programme would have to be cohesive and practical for the rankings to have more meaning.
Coming back to the Test, he said, “It was important that we used Malinga and Murali in spells that counted. I think every spell that they bowled they got us wickets. Those are the things that really won us the game. We cannot forget Paranavitana who got a Test hundred. Herath and Malinga's contribution with the bat mattered a lot. The Indians were constantly under pressure.”
He congratulated curator J. Warnaweera and his never-say-die groundstaff. “On any other ground, we would have lost more play but they put in so much effort to get the ground ready as soon as possible.”
