K L Rahul played down Sri Lanka's "time-wasting" tactics as India pushed for victory in fading light on the final day of the first Test here on Monday.
As Lanka kept losing wickets while chasing India's target of 231, the tourists naturally tried to delay the proceedings engaging in verbal duels, often calling for drinks and physio and taking forever to come back to strike after each ball. While these are the normal practices each team resorts when in trouble, Indians were visibly annoyed as darkness began to envelop the stadium.
"It's a tricky thing, if we were in a situation like that, I am sure we'd have done the same thing," said Rahul. "That's how the game is played, nobody wants to lose the game. These tricks are played by every team. There's nothing unfair about it. Obviously, as a team trying to win the game, we want to bowl as many overs as we can, but that's how it is played. You can't really complain about that. If we had five or six more overs, we'd have definitely made a game out of it," he explained.
Though effectively there were only three days of play possible due to a combination of rain and poor light, the game threw up a gripping fare as long as it lasted thanks to the lively pitch.
"I think on a wicket like that it'd have been great if we got five days of cricket," he said talking about the Test. "We enjoyed playing on a wicket that was challenging and these are the kinds of the matches you look forward to. It's a good experience for all of us. I don't think personally I've played a game like this, which is shortened and rain-curtailed but goes down to the wire."
India's plans of an early declaration suffered a setback on the final morning when they lost three quick wickets. They had to slow down and delay their declaration.
"Of course that was the plan (declare)," he said. "We wanted to go out there and play positively and try to get 200-250 runs and give them a challenging total which they also feel like they can chase it down and that's where we create opportunities. Unfortunately, we lost three wickets early in one spell of (Suranga) Lakmal so we had to play a little longer. And then Virat (Kohli) played a fabulous knock. That was expected from one batsman today and he delivered. Again, five or six overs, and it would've been our way," he observed.
