It was hard work to win, says Dravid

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from India, NEW DELHI, Wednesday, Captain Rahul Dravid said that India had to work really hard to win the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka at the Ferozshah Kotla grounds here today. India beat Sri Lanka by 188 runs on the fifth and final day after lunch to take 1-0 lead in the 3-Test series.

"It wasn't an easy win. In India you sometimes make a big first innings total and knock the opposition over on the fourth and fifth days and the wicket starts turning square. It wasn't that kind of win. It was a hard working win," said Dravid.

"We didn't get a very big score in the first innings. We had to bowl really well to get them out for 230 in the first innings. We batted well in the second and bowled well in the fourth. It was hard work for the bowlers and it was very creditable for them to take 20 wickets. Though the pitch kept a bit low I still think it's not a bad wicket," he said.

Dravid said the reason to send fast bowler Irfan Pathan to open in the Indian second innings was purely a tactical one. Pathan went onto make a Test career best 93 off 143 balls to enable India score 375-6 declared after being dismissed for 290 in the first innings.

"In the last two innings Pathan had to go and play Murali when the ball was turning and when it was old and he had got out early. On slow low wickets like this, sometimes the easiest time to bat is with the new ball," said Dravid. "As we have seen in all four innings most runs were scored when the ball was hard. Even in the fourth innings we saw in the first 12-15 overs a lot of runs were scored.

When the ball is hard it comes onto the bat." "My reason for sending Irfan to open the batting was that he could simply force the pace and play positively. The instruction to him was to play his shots so that we could get the impetus upfront and batsmen like Lakshman could force the pace.

We needed some experienced batsmen to play against the turning ball later on. There was me, Sourav, Sachin and Yuvraj. This situation arose only because someone fell sick (Sehwag)," said Dravid.

It's a matter of three inches - Kumble Man of the match Anil Kumble who took a match bag of 10 for 157 said to come to a ground where he had done well before, gave him the confidence and helped him to perform well. "It was not a typical Kotla wicket where on the fourth and fifth days you expect a lot more spin. It was slow and low and I had to really push to get wickets," said Kumble who six years ago had taken all ten wickets in a Test innings against Pakistan at this venue.

Not a great spinner of the ball like Australian spin icon Shane Warne, Kumble said the reason for his success was to create a doubt in the batsmen's mind. "You just need to spin three inches to get the edge that's all that matters."

"I always believe that if we have a score on the board we can create pressure and give less opportunity for the batsmen to score runs. The pressure builds and it brings results," he said. Kumble who will be playing his 100th Test at Ahmedabad on Sunday said when he made his Test debut nearly 16 years ago he did not expect he would play for so long. "It's a great feeling to be part of that elite group. I think it is very special."