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Journalism of Courage
He held his hands in a clasp high above his head praying to the almighty,immediately before frothing abuses towards his rival.
Nothing quite contradicts like Santhakumaran Sreesanths body language does,but once again on Monday like several other days during this series in South Africa it got well under the Proteas skins,twisting and twirling with their emotions annoyingly.
Bowling his first over with the second new ball,Sreesanth got the ball to pitch well outside the left-hander8217;s off-stump,before it jagged back angrily to clip the top of the visible bail. Prince8217;s stoic 47 was terminated,while Srees shining white teeth were unleashed.
The five-for ensured that Sreesanth was the tied highest wicket-taker nine for India with Zaheer Khan,while pulling India back into the match,even if only temporarily before Jacques Kallis undid all goodwill with an innings of 161.
Hashim Amla may not be the kind of person to be affected by Sreesanths verbal nonsense,but the line and length worked,as he holed out to Cheteshwar Pujara just short of the square-leg boundary rope for 59.
Amla was his first wicket,and shortly after,Sreesanth had his second AB de Villiers. By setting de Villiers up in a fantastic spell from the Old Grove End,the head-banded pacer ended a flourishing partnership between him and Kallis just before stumps were drawn. The key to his wickets,according to Sreesanth,was finding his rhythm. I want to be more consistent,but I8217;m still learning. It8217;s a great honour for me to bowl to the likes of Kallis and Smith. It tells me that I8217;m doing justice to my talent.
If the two wickets boosted his confidence,then the three he added to the tally wouldve surely given him something to write home about. While Prince had at least shown enough resistance at the crease and spent sufficient time on Monday to allow Sreesanth to get on his nerves,Mark Boucher was exactly the opposite. By getting dismissed first ball to another Sreesanth beauty the leather was pitched short of good length,before it hurried onto the bats edge while moving away the South African keeper took the fuming bowler by surprise. The celebrations gave birth to a rare species a non-glaring Sreesanth.
The hat-trick ball was wasted by overstepping one of the six no-balls he bowled in the innings but he made short work of Morne Morkel for his fifth. With Morkel slashing at anything wide over the cordon,Sreesanth held it back just enough for Morkel to lunge at it pouched cunningly by a satisfied MS Dhoni.
I love Cape Town and the crowds over here. If I could I would take them all over the world with me, he said later.
