NO DEMONS IN WICKET, SAYS POTHAS

Nagpur, Nov. 24: Sri Lanka coach Nic Pothas on Friday clarified that there were “no demons” in the VCA Stadium track and rued the manner in which six of his batsmen got out to straight deliveries on the first day of the second Test against India here.

“The wicket has got no demons. It hasn’t spun, it hasn’t seamed. There were six straight ball dismissals. At the international level it’s no surprise that Ravindra Jadeja bowls straight balls. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja got wickets bowling stump to stump.

“At this level, you can’t be missing straight balls,” Pothas said.

Pothas said that at best, the ball was skidding at the Jamtha strip.

“In the last series, the wickets spun. You are talking of the two top spinners ( Ashwin and Jadeja) of the world. It was a different kettle of fish. Here the wicket didn’t do anything. All what it has done was to skid on a bit. On a wicket that hasn’t done much, we lost seven wickets to spin. It is a disappointing change room as the guys have set themselves high standards. They are going to be disappointed. In any process, you are going to have those disappointments.”

Pothas conceded that the timing of skipper Dinesh Chandimal’s decision to play a reverse sweep to Ashwin was “not the best”.“The captain made a decision at that point of time. We empower the batsmen to make decisions in the middle. He ( Chandimal) obviously felt that ( reverse sweep) was the way to score runs at that point.”