India neutralize Herath threat -Rahane

Rangana Herath is congratulated on the wicket of Virat Kohli

India have neutralized the threat of Rangana Herath by continuously attacking the veteran spinner by using their feats and Anjikya Rahane says it was a conscious effort by the batters to attack.

Herath who has been Sri Lanka’s strike bowler during the last few years has been at the receiving ends as opposition piled up runs with ease by attacking him. In his last three innings he has given away as many as 347 runs at an average of 86.75 picking five wickets.

 “When we played last time here against Sri Lanka, especially after Galle Test match, we decided that using footwork against him was very important,” said Rahane who shared a marathon 217 runs for the fourth wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara. Both Rahane (132) and Pujara (133) scored centuries as India piled up 622 for the loss of nine wickets—the second 600 plus first innings score in the series.

“Here again in the first test, Shikhar (Dhawan) batted really well, but throughout against him and their spinners we wanted to use our footwork so we could get more runs on the back-foot. Especially on this kind of wicket. It is very slow and dry, so we knew that if we use our footwork we will get more 
runs on the back-foot.

Herath picked up four of the nine Indian wickets that fell in their first innings but not before India piled up a huge score to put depleted Sri Lanka under tremendous pressure. Rahane said his 132 is one of the best innings of his career.

“This was one of the best innings against spinners. My focus was to dominate. We are No. 1 team. We talk about it in the dressing room so when situation (133/3) asks we cannot get into pressure,” he said.

“I wanted to take my time initially but later on, we thought if we dominate, if we change the momentum, they will be on the back foot straightaway, and that’s what happened. Because the same thinking was in Melbourne [in December 2014] in Australia, wanted to dominate them and that's what we did. But here the challenge was slightly different, a spinning-friendly wicket and we knew that if we get a good partnership - because I was talking to Virat in the dressing room before lunch that if we get a 150-200 partnership, one big partnership, they will be on the back foot and that's what actually happened. Me and [Cheteshwar] Pujara got that partnership.

Rahane admitted that the slowness of the pitch will make it even tougher for the batsmen during the next three days.