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Ahmedabad: Kumar Sangakkara was counting the positives from the drawn first Test on Friday. At a news conference he said that the performance of the pacers, none of whom were first choice players, had been heartening.
The following are excerpts
If the team has a psychological edge going into the second Test
There’s no psychological edge as such. The teams are pretty evenly placed after the first Test. Both teams will have to start from scratch. I’m happy we played as a unit and also performed well as individuals.
If they’d surrendered the advantage
We had our best chance on Day I when we reduced India to 32 for four. We just let it go with the line and length we bowled after lunch and tea. There was nothing there in the last two days. It is all about taking the chances that come your way and we didn’t on the first day. A lead of 334 was good but there was nothing really in the pitch for the bowlers. I think it was a good Test match for both sides.
If the seamers had outperformed the spinners
The seamers did the bulk of the work for us. Our spinners are still finding their way round bowling in Tests in India. This was a good experience for them, bowling lengthy spells.
Welegedara’s performance
He was told that he would be playing only five minutes before the toss. To respond the way he did shows he has a lot of character, a lot of hunger. Let’s see how the next Test goes for him…
Gautam Gambhir’s batting
Gautam batted well. It always helps when you get good starts.
If he’d wanted to bring an early end to proceedings Friday
It was Sachin (Tendulkar)’s decision to bat… He said he wanted to continue, to get to his hundred.
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