S Sreesanth rocked Sri Lanka with a an impressive three-wicket burst as the visitors huffed and puffed their way to 138 for five at lunch on Day Three of the second Test against India on Thursday.
S Sreesanth rocked Sri Lanka with a an impressive three-wicket burst as the visitors huffed and puffed their way to 138 for five at lunch on Day Three of the second Test against India on Thursday.
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Replying to India's mammoth first innings total of 642, Sri Lanka resumed on 66 for one before Sreesanth wreaked havoc to push the islanders into a hole that got deeper and deeper.
Let off twice by the Indians, Mahela Jayawardene was batting on 26 at lunch in company of Prasanna Jayawardene (2) with Sri Lanka still trailing the hosts by a massive 504 runs.
Back in the side after 19 months in the wilderness, Sreesanth grabbed with both hands what the Green Park track had to offer to him. He got rid of both the overnight batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Tharanga Paranavitana.
Sree could have added Jayawardene to his scalp but for a confusion between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar. Sreesanth hit Paranavitana (38) on the shoulder to signal his intention before prising him out and nearly had Mahela Jayawardene caught for a duck but Dhoni and Tendulkar could not decide who should go for it and let the ball race away for a four.
Sreesanth removed Sangakkara (44) and Thilan Samaraweera (2) in similar fashion - both dragging the ball onto their stumps - to compound Sri Lanka's misery.
Having lost Tillakaratne Dilshan for a golden duck on Wednesday, both the overnight batsmen began cautiously but with Sreesanth exploiting the early juice in the wicket, life for the Lankan batsmen was never easy.
Paranavitana edged Sreesanth for a streaky boundary but it was clear that he was in all sorts of trouble against the Kerala pacer, who bent his back and maintained a probing line.
Paranavitana copped one on his body as well when he took his eyes off a bouncer and Sreesanth finally had him when the batsman poked at an away-going delivery and Dhoni dived to his left to pouch a smart catch.
The same alacrity was, however, missing in the very next ball which came off new man in Mahela Jayawardene's blade and Dhoni did not even made an attempt as the ball raced through between him and Tendulkar at first slip.
Sreesanth was understandably exasperated but he did not have to wait long for his next success.
Sangakkara could not gauge the slowness of the track and played a fractionally premature shot to drag the Sreesanth delivery onto his stumps. Another 10 runs on board and Sri Lanka were without the service of Thilan Samaraweera (2), whose exit was virtually a carbon copy of Sangakkara's dismissal.
Dhoni replaced Sreesanth with Harbhajan Singh and the offie responded by pushing his fifth delivery of the day through Angelo Mathews' (13) gate and clipping the bail.
Their top half blown away for 134, Sri Lanka could have been in deeper crisis but Rahul Dravid fluffed a catch after Mahela Jayawardene had edged Harbhajan.
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