Calcutta/Colombo: With Sri Lankan batsmen putting up a good fight on Day III to defy India after following on, Ravichandran Ashwin urged his teammates to be disciplined in order to get the remaining opposition wickets and win the second Test at the SSC.
But it won't be an easy task as the wicket is getting easier to bat on, Ashwin feels.
"I think this wicket will get slower and slower. It is not going to be easy work tomorrow for sure. We will have to be really disciplined.
"We conceded a few runs more than ideally we should have given. Tomorrow, we can probably try and squeeze them out, and try and nip a few wickets up early. It is going to be very, very important.
"Mind you, it is not going to be easy because the wicket is slowing down at a very, very quick pace. Edges aren't carrying.
"That means we will have to stick our guns out and try to prise a few wickets out. The second new ball, therefore, becomes important.
"Sri Lanka got a great partnership, but the guys coming in will have to start from scratch. There is going to be an equal challenge for both sides," the off-spinner said after Saturday's play.
The pitch certainly looks easier to bat on, but Ashwin highlighted the fact that he and other bowlers beat Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis quite often during Sri Lanka's second innings.
"The wicket had a bit of venom in the morning. But as the ball got older and we bowled the second time around, it is kind of fizzling out and the edges aren't carrying that much to the fielders.
"But we beat the bat a lot. I think Mendis batted beautifully. He put Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) off his length very quickly, so credit to him," Ashwin said.
Praising both Karunaratne and Mendis, Ashwin backed his fellow bowlers, saying each of them tried their best to squeeze out a wicket. "I just think Test teams are allowed to bat well in a few sessions. They did bat well.
"But we beat the bat pretty often even in the sessions we didn't get wickets. Karunaratne really complemented Mendis. He defended beautifully and Mendis played a few extra shots that Karunaratne obviously didn't play.
"Whatever they did came off for them. Having said that, I don't think we did too much wrong. We tried reverse swing, we bowled cutters in the end. We beat the bat on quite a few occasions and hopefully, we will try and make them nick some tomorrow," Ashwin explained.
Talking about trying different things in conditions at the SSC, Ashwin said: "I was just looking at what sort of lines I needed to bowl because there isn't much within the stumps for the ball to do. I can't really come straight because it is not doing a lot from there.
"It's pretty wide - the lines I need to be bowling, both for the left-hander and the right-hander. Also, the breeze was taking the ball away from me as I came closer to the stumps.
"There is some help if you go wider for the right-handers. For left-handers, obviously, the ball goes even further away, so it enabled to beat the bat more often than not.
"They (Karunaratne and Mendis) batted inside the line a lot when they defended and when they attacked, they were not in two minds. They definitely attacked well."
Even changing lines and lengths wouldn't matter much as the two Sri Lankan batsmen batted beautifully, Ashwin iterated. "Changing lines and lengths are both inter-related because if you have to go wider, you'll have to push the ball a little further for it to be a good-length and all that.
"We did try and lot of things in the middle today... It was not like a lack of intensity or anything. It was just that a couple of good batsmen batted beautifully."
Asked about having enforced the follow-on after dismissing Sri Lanka for 183 in the first innings, Ashwin said: "More often than not, we've based it upon how fresh or tired the bowlers are.
"We did get them all out under two sessions, so we thought it was the right time to enforce the follow-on.
"We also felt that the wicket will keep on slowing down. It won't be easy work as the game gets deeper into the fourth or fifth day."
