Dhoni slams placid pitch

Indian captain Mahendra Singh revealed Sachin Tendulkar was suffering from stiffness in his groin.

Dhoni said here on Friday, "Sachin (Tendulkar) looks okay but we do not know about the extent of the injury."

The maestro notched up his fifth Test double century in the second Test. The Indian captain said Gautam Gambhir (sore right knee) and Yuvraj Singh (fever) had recovered well.

Talking about the pitch at the SSC, he said, "It was a flat track, there was nothing in it for the bowlers. On such a pitch, 99.9 per cent of the time, you will not get a result?"

He added, "For me a sporting wicket does not mean the one that seams around but it has to have bounce. In the sub-continent, it is really difficult to make wicket like that. Sub-continent is known for its turning tracks. The pitch starts turning after the first day. The spinners get help and there is reverse swing for the pacemen. But this placid track had nothing in it for anyone. Even great bowlers would struggle in these conditions. It was only in the last session that we could see some wear and tear in the pitch.”

Dhoni observed, "On a wicket like this, you have to be really practical. If you have too many attacking fielders, we had one or two slips and a gully throughout the two Test matches, nothing might go to them. If you have a wicket that has nothing for the bowlers, it’s always better to have semi-defensive field. Because on wickets like this you never know how to get the wickets. You have the option of getting the batsman to pull but the pacemen cannot bowl eight-ten over spells in these conditions."

Dhoni was all praise for Raina. "I think he was outstanding during his debut. Made a century in a pressure situation. He has played 98 ODIs, knows what to do in the park. He is a wonderful fielder as well."

Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara said, "I knew the match was a draw after tea yesterday when they (India) went beyond our score. Maybe we should have scored around 750 runs in the first innings."

Asked about the batsmen-friendly pitch at the SSC, he said, "The crowds like to see an even contest between the bat and the ball. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case before this Test match. The wicket at the SSC has been always flat. I remember when we played against Pakistan, we had to bat out about five sessions to save the Test and at the end we were 424 for four."

On wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene dropping Tendulkar on 29, he said, "It turned out to be a big miss at the end. But you see Prasanna rarely misses anything. This was one off day and he missed one chance.

Unfortunately for him, Sachin went on to make a double hundred. We created a few chances against him, but could not cash in after picking three quick wickets"

Sangakkara said off-spinner Suraj Randiv was preferred to left-arm spinner Rangana Herath since the lanky bowler could, with his high arm action, extract more bounce from the pitch."