Test is evenly poised at the moment: Kirsten

Indian coach Gary Kirsten today said the first Test against Sri Lanka is still evenly poised at the moment and with another three days to go it can still be anybody's game.

Speaking to mediapersons after the second day's play, the South African-born coach admitted that the hosts would have liked to add a few more runs to their first innings total, but added that after being 30/4 at one stage, they were happy with 426.

Kirsten also praised Zaheer Khan, saying in his first match back after an injury lay off he had bowled really well. ''It is good to have him back. A bowler with his experience, he bowled very cleverly today and we hope he would be able to continue the same way in this Test and the series,'' Kirsten said.

Kirsten also felt that Harbhajan bowled with good rhythm on a wicket that was tailor made for batsmen. However, the Indian coach stated that leg-spinner Amit Mishra lacked rhythm and that is understandable as he has not played much cricket in the recent past.

When asked as to why Mishra was not relieved during the Australian ODI series and was made to play domestic cricket, Kirsten said, ''During an international we need players as if on the morning of the match, some player is injured or falls sick, then we have a replacement. However, he hoped that Mishra would get his rhythm as the match progressed.'' Speaking about the composition of the team, Kirsten said,''For quite some time we have played with four frontline bowlers as it helps the balance of our team and I feel in this match also it is just the second day and there is a lot of cricket left, with Sri Lanka batting last our two main spinners would be able to penetrate the Lankan batting order.'' The Indian coach also stated that he would have liked some more reverse swing and hopefully it would be there on the third day. ''The wicket is not that abrasive and the outfield is also lush green here so the ball is not getting roughed up that easily here and therefore there has been less reverse swing,'' he explained.

Kirsten also said that he was all for the referral system, but a few people have apprehensions over it and it has to be fine tuned before being used again and therefore it was not used for this Test.

-- (UNI) -- 17SPD46.xml

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