Looking for a lead of 100 runs - B Arun

India bowling coach B Arun has said India will be satisfied with a lead of around 100 runs because of the condition of the P Sara Oval pitch, which he said would offer both bounce and reverse swing. The Indian bowlers kept Sri Lanka down to under three runs an over in their first innings on the second day, as the hosts ended on 140 for 3, still 253 runs behind.

"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," Arun said. The P Sara pitch, regarded as the most seamer-friendly in the country, is not offering the carry that it has been known to but Arun said 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."

The decision to play Umesh Yadav over Varun Aaron, who bowled at a good pace but conceded 107 in his 18 overs in Galle, had to do with Umesh's better dexterity with the ball, both when it would be new and old. Arun said India had benefitted from having a variety in the bowling attack on this tour, giving the team "much more freedom" to choose the attack made for the surfaces they faced.

"If you look at this wicket, it does not have that much pace to offer," Arun said. "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." In the past, citing the example of the tour of Australia, Arun said Umesh had tended to bowl spells, "when he was good and then he could leak runs. So we had to work on Umesh to become a lot more consistent because he has the pace, he can move the ball and also he can reverse it with the old ball. That makes him a potent bowler provided you have a lot of discipline and that's exactly what we worked on and we will go ahead with it."

The control shown by the Indian seamers, Arun said, had pleased the team because "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." He said that "discipline", when it came to bowlers, involved "ironing out your difficulties" and thinking clearly under pressure. "The calmer you are, if you have clarity of mind, then you have the best chance to perform."

When Sri Lanka came out to bat, Arun said the plan was, "to make them work for every run. We reworked our fields, we looked at the batsmen's strengths, these are the areas they were really scoring at. And we said we are going to plug those very areas where they are going to be looking for runs. So far it has worked well for us."