Good use of feet against Herath was the key to success, says Ajinkya Rahane

One of the keys to India’s totals in the series - 600, 240 for 3 declared and now 622 for 9 declared - has been how brilliantly they have kept Sri Lankan veteran Rangana Herath at bay. The experienced left-arm spinner, whose average against India since fashioning the Galle win in 2015 is 53.61, did finish with 4 for 154 in the Indian first innings but needed 42 overs to do so. The particular reason behind this was that the Indian batsmen adopted good feet movement to tackle his left-arm spin and as Rahane admitted, it was the plan to keep Herath quiet.

Rahane’s ninth Test hundred yesterday was his first in 17 innings, since he made 188 in the third and final Test against New Zealand in Indore in October last year. Although the Indian vice-captain managed to get some good runs under his belt since then, the three-figure knock had proved elusive. Therefore, the significance of the Friday knock was even bigger for the Mumbaikar. 

With the loss of Virat Kohli's wicket on the opening day, India found themselves three down for 133, but unfortunately for Sri Lanka, Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were prepared for just that kind of situation. After the innings, Rahane revealed that he was confident that a big score was around the corner and rated the knock as one of his best knocks against the spinners.

"This was one of the best innings against spinners. My focus was to dominate. Going in to bat I knew a little bit how the wicket was behaving, how much bounce it had and whether it suits my game or not. The communication between Pujara and me was that we hardly played any maiden overs. So we put pressure back on them. As the match goes on, it will be a more difficult wicket to bat on," said Rahane.