Sreesanth puts India on verge of a win

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: November 27, 2009

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Kanpur: Controversy’s child Shanthakumaran Sreesanth returned to international cricket in style, picking up a five wicket haul in his very first game and putting India on the verge of a test win at Kanpur. Sri Lanka couldn’t manage to save the follow-on and were tottering at 57 for 4 in the second innings, still trailing India by 356 runs at stumps of Day 3.

What makes Sreesanth’s performance even more special is not only the fact that he was making a comeback after 19 months but also the pitch that he was playing on was a slow and low pitch not assisting the fast bowlers at all. Still, he ran in hard over after over, hitting the pitch hard and managing to find life on a docile wicket. And he didn’t stop at his first innings five-for leading the way in the second innings too by removing the dangerous Tillakaratne Dilshan before the spinners started coming into their own and Sri Lanka started disintegrating.

Sri Lanka lost 13 wickets in the day for 217 runs and are looking straight down the barrel of another test loss in India. Mahela Jayawardene (47) and his namesake Prasanna Jayawardene (39) tried to put up a fight adding 60 runs in the first innings but that was about it as far as the positives go for Sri Lanka. The pitch was turning a bit and Pragyan Ojha, making his test match debut, should be given a lot of credit for Sreesanth’s success. He bowled tight lines not giving anything away at one end while Sreesanth attacked from the other. I would be surprised if Ojha doesn’t become a regular in the Indian test team in the times to come because he is clearly the perfect foil for someone like Harbhajan.

If Sreesanth was the destroyer in the first innings, Sri Lanka seemed to be on a self destruction mode in the second essay of their batting. Tharanga Paranavitana was trapped by an arm-ball from Virender Sehwag and Kumar Sangakkara chopped a topspinner from Harbhajan on to the stumps.

However, the crucial moment in the second innings was the run out of Mahela Jayawardene, the top scorer in the first innings. Sangakkara just pushed the ball to the right of the midwicket fielder and called for a suicidal run but Mahela had no chance at all to beat the throw from Yuvraj Singh. With Sri Lanka at 57 for 4 in their second innings and still 2 days to go in the game, they can only pray to the raingods to save the match for them.

The day belonged to one man — Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. Ironically, he played his last test 19 months ago at the same ground before just disappearing from the cricketing field and featuring on dance shows and page 3 parties. Today, he came back with a vengeance.

For anyone who has seen Sreesanth self destruct from one of the most promising bowlers when he started to just another name in the list, the defining moment came when he got his fifth wicket in the first innings. It was a peach that pitched on middle stump and went on to take out the off stump of a totally clueless Rangana Herath. The celebration was muted. Just a folding of palms in prayer and gratitude, the right hand rose to accept high-fives from his team-mates and a smile on his face. It wasn’t the usual dramatic, theatrical Sreesanth that we saw so often and that made him perhaps the most complex cricketer in this side.

Today, he was a man possessed, out to prove his ability as a fast bowler. His spells of 9-2-28-3 in the first session and 7-2-18-2 in the second say it all.

Brief Scores:

Sri Lanka 229 (Mahela 47, Sangakkara 44, Sreesanth 5-75) and 57 for 4 (Samaraweera 1*, Mathews 2*) trail India 642 (Gambhir 167, Dravid 144, Sehwag 137, Herath 5-121) by 356 runs

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