Sreesanth lets the ball do the talking

Sreesanth covered his face as soon as the ball flashed from Mahela Jayawardene's outside edge and past the narrow alley between MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar at first slip. It was probably the ball of the day: it was the first ball Jayawardene was facing and, perhaps sensing his vulnerability, Sreesanth pitched it fuller and shaped it away just enough to prompt Jayawardene to play at it. Where once Sreesanth might have walked up to the batsman and indulged in a bit of verbal, today he walked back quietly with a faint smile.


Today, Sreesanth didn't need the verbals; the ball did the talking for him. Such was his allure that each time he ran in Green Park buzzed with expectation. And when he had finished his job and led his team off the pitch, it was incredible to think he was coming into this Test without any international cricket for the past 19 months and without much match experience of any sort.

Yet, as he later said, he was "hungry to take the "new ball". The aim was not to go full throttle straightaway, though he did hit Tharanga Paranavitana's helmet with an accurate bouncer. On a docile pitch Sreesanth understood that trying to hit express pace would be futile; the focus was on hitting that length from where he could make the batsmen play and vary pace.

"This was a wicket where the faster you bowl the easier it is to bat. It was important to make him (batsman) play early and make him play late and it was a mixture of lots [of deliveries]," Sreesanth said while explaining his strategy.

He then started shaping the ball both ways, sowing the seeds of doubt in the Lankan minds. The first over was a maiden to Paranavitana, who was clearly edgy and eventually nicked an outswinger to Dhoni. Then came Mahela who, though lucky to escape off that first delivery, found Sreesanth pounding in relentlessly, banging the ball unerringly on the same spot.

Against Sangakkara, Sreesanth used the crease to produce his angle. He came round the wicket and bowled a slower ball that the Lankan captain picked smartly but had him next ball. It was a straighter one, fuller and wide on off stump and, though apparently harmless, Sangakkara dragged it on to his stumps. Thilan Samaraweera fell in the same fashion after being pegged down by Sreesanth's movement early on.

Sreesanth returned halfway into the second session when the two Jayawardenes - Mahela and Prasanna - were attempting to retrieve the situation. The ball was old and with his pace Sreesanth had the advantage of extracting reverse swing. Continuing to attack the off stump Sreesanth speared a toe crusher into Prasanna. The Lankan got his bat down in the nick of time but the crowd roared as the Indians appealed anyway. The next ball, though, Sreesanth pitched on the seam, cut the ball out and the batsman went fishing. This time contact with the bat was debatable but the decision went the bowler's way.


He would soon bend Ranganna Herath's off stump with another straightening delivery to bag his second five-for - roughly three years after his first, during India's brilliant victory in Johannesburg in 2006.

Perhaps that performance became Sreesanth's albatross, increasing public expectations and, indeed, those in his own mind. He was 24, relatively green, and wanting to get a wicket every ball. The next three years were up and down, with lots of plateau thrown in, and a 19-month spell on the sidelines.

He now seems to have turned full circle. Sreesanth's fast bowling skills have never been in question: fast-bowling greats like Allan Donald have always cited his example to youngsters, particularly pointing to his erect wrist position at the point of release as exemplary. The energy, the ability to swing at 140-plus speeds, and that priceless quality of pitching ball after ball on the same spot make Sreesanth a terrific package.

The doubts that have persisted have always been about his temperament. He was always vulnerable to adrenalin and bravado, a heady mix that has frustrated and irritated the team management, co-players and selectors.

Though he spent a month at Warwickshire and then the season-opening Irani Cup, no one, perhaps not even the man himself, knew whether he was ready for the return. He was fined during the Irani Cup game for abusing an opponent and received a stiff warning from the BCCI against breaching the code of conduct. And it's fair to say his selection for the first two Tests did not evoke universal approval.

Remarkably amidst such chaos Sreesanth maintained his calm. All through the last two weeks he has been restrained, doing his job, head down in a silent manner. In training session teammates have consciously left him alone, while praising him silently as he bowled at good speeds, beating the bat consistently.

He's been quiet since his comeback. And today, he let the ball do the talking.

India delight in Delhi double-act

It was just a brief chat but its importance increased as the day went on. Midway through the 21st over Virender Sehwag walked up to Gautam Gambhir and said a few words. Gambhir listened patiently and nodded in response.

The previous ball, Muttiah Muralitharan had drawn Gambhir out with a well-flighted off break. Gambhir, a few runs short of his half-century, stepped out and tried unsuccessfully to hit him over mid-on. The next delivery, after the chat, the sequence of events was the same but with one difference: Murali flighted the ball, Gambhir jumped out of his crease but this time he connected well and hit over mid-off for a four.

Sehwag's gesture was, in fact, complementary. Earlier in the morning, when he was struggling, his junior team-mate walked up to him frequently to help him relax. More importantly, Gambhir made sure that while Sehwag was still finding his feet the scoring tempo never slowed down. It was probably the most important act in the Indian innings - had Gambhir not kept the scoring rate at a healthy four-plus, Sri Lanka would have had a foot inside the Indian door.

It was yet another sign of how the two Delhi openers have forged a bond of complete trust and respect, how they feed off each other and how, in the process, they have moved to within 507 runs of becoming India's best opening pair, and have already featured in the most number of opening stands leading to Indian victories.

Within a couple of hours of that chat, Sehwag and Gambhir had posted their highest-ever partnership, the 233-run stand beating their previous best - recorded at Kanpur, against South Africa five years ago in their second Test together.

"I was not hitting the ball well to begin with and Gautam was in good form. He was getting boundaries and we were maintaining three runs an over and hence there was not much pressure on me," Sehwag said.
There's no better testament to Gambhir's growth than his ability to assess situations and then adapt to them almost instantly. Today, no length unsettled him, no bowler could lure him into a false shot; repeatedly, Chanaka Welegedara attacked his off stump with a fuller line, repeatedly Gambhir stood his ground to open the face of the bat at the last minute and glide it towards third man. Not only did he rotate the strike but he assumed the mantle when the Sri Lankans kept Sehwag in the check in the first hour.


It was a double-act reminiscent of the best of this generation, Justin Langer and Mathew Hayden: neither Australian relented under pressure. If one partner was under the cosh, the other would assume the aggressor's role even if it meant taking some risks. The only thing that mattered was to construct a good, solid platform in the first session. So often was Australia's fate scripted in those first two hours of the morning. And more often than not, they ended up on the winning side.

Partnerships of any kind require understanding. And you can understand the other only when you communicate clearly. Having shared a dressing room - first with Delhi and now for India - for nearly a decade, each knows the other's pulse.

And so, like a pair of screen cops, they cover for each other, they pick separate targets and double the mayhem. Last year in Galle, India were in a desperate situation after being dumbfounded by Ajantha Mendis in the first Test in Colombo. Sehwag and Gambhir read him best and they capitalised on that in Galle with the game's most vital partnership; their 167-run stand put India on top and the openers returned for the second dig with a 90-run partnership to keep India in the clear. In both innings Sehwag neutered the menace of Mendis by attacking him while Gambhir took charge of Murali.

The Indian pair applied the same strategy even today as Sehwag assaulted Mendis straightaway while Gambhir made Murali change his lines frequently by stepping out and placing the ball into the gaps. The Lankans were under the pump from both ends and could do little. "I was telling myself just play first 8-10 overs so I was concentrating hard and trying to leave the ball outside off. I worked hard in the first hour and after that I played my shots" Sehwag said.

He then revealed what he said to Gambhir in the 21st over: "I was just telling him to think big because this wicket is very good … and if he stayed there for three hours he would get his hundred."