Given their emphatic victory over Sri Lanka in the first ODI at Nagpur on Tuesday, India should have the psychological edge going into the second encounter to be played at Mohali on Friday. But the use of lights, and the weather conditions, means that the match is a lottery with the toss playing a large part in the result.If stats are to be taken into account, teams chasing under the lights at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium have lost most of the games. Five of the seven day-night ODIs played here have gone to the team batting first.However, PCA chief curator Daljit Singh prefers not to make any statement either way. ‘‘This is the same pitch we used for the NKP Salve Challenger Series. It’s a good hard, bouncy track. The pitch is likely to flatten in the later stages of the match. But I won’t suggest anything — whether to bowl first or bat after winning the toss.’’For what it’s worth, the Challenger matches were not exactly high-scoring affairs, and all four ties — all played under lights — were won by the team batting second.What Singh did say was that evening dew would cause problems for the fielding side. ‘‘We have a lot of dew here at this time of the year here, it will bother the groundsmen as well. The ball is going to get wet making it difficult for spinners to get a grip’’, Daljit added.That’s not good news for Sri Lanka, who have a spin-heavy attack in Muttiah Muralitharan, Tillekeratane Dilshan and Upal Chandana. Or for India, who used two frontline spinners yesterday, Harbhajan Singh being their most effective bowler. He and Murali Kartik would take a deep, long look before deciding on their strategy for the match.Meanwhile, both teams arrived here this evening. The Indians also brought with them the injured Mohammed Kaif, out of the squad for the first two ODIs.
