My focus was on dominating Sri Lanka bowlers, says Rahane

TIL Desk Sports/ India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has said he was focused on dominating the bowlers after playing a masterful knock of 132 runs during the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club here.

Rahane’s patient first innings knock came off 222 balls. His innings was laced with 14 boundaries. The 29-year-old put together a 217-run stand with one-down batsman Cheteshwara Pujara (133) to help India reach a mammoth 622/9 when skipper Virat Kohli decided to declare.

“This was one of my 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,” Rahane told reporters.