NEW DELHI: It has been a dream
comeback for S Sreesanth. His bowling did all the talking in the Kanpur Test,
and the icing on the cake was India’s big win and the Man of the Match award.

The fact that he hasn’t lost the ability to deliver the bowl with an
upright seam, a quality which the likes of Allan Donald have praised, can only
be good news for Indian cricket.

“Landing the ball with an upright
seam comes naturally to me. From the time I started bowling medium pace, my
release has always been like this. I am thankful to God for it. I don’t try
anything extravagant these days. I keep it simple and concentrate more on moving
the ball well. I think I have rediscovered my rhythm, which is helping me get
reverse swing. The idea is to keep working at it,” Sreesanth told TOI on
Saturday.

“My performance in Kanpur has given me a lot of inspiration
to do well in future. I am playing for India after a long time and it’s quite
exciting to get back into the groove.

It’s a dream,” Sreesanth said,
adding: “This comeback wouldn’t have been possible without the basics I learnt
from Dennis Lillee and TA Sekar. They spotted me when I was raw and helped me
get where I am today. I also bowled a lot in domestic matches, whenever I got a
chance to play. So, all those experiences helped,” he added.

Sreesanth also believes his faith saw him through. “I always pray
and seek everyone’s blessing, especially my family members and close friends,
who were with me when times were really tough,” he said.

Life is a
little different now for Sreesanth after the Kanpur Test. On Friday evening
while catching a connecting flight from Mumbai, he met Bollywood superstar
Amitabh and wife Jaya Bachchan at the airport.

“My family members
and I are big fans of Amitabh Bachchan and it was great to meet him in Mumbai.
He is someone who inspires me always. He speaks really well. He was pleased to
see me back in the team and congratulated me on my performance,” Sreesanth
added.

MUMBAI: In-form Indian opener Gautam
Gambhir on Sunday won the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year award for his
stupendous performance with the bat in the 2008-09 season.

Gambhir,
who has notched seven hundreds in his last nine Tests including four in the last
four, also won the Test Batsman of the Year award at a function held on Sunday
night.

Gambhir’s India and Delhi opening mate Virender Sehwag won
the ODI Batsman of the Year award.

The Test Bowler of the Year award
was bagged by Australia’s left-arm pacer Mitchell Johnson.

Former
spin great Erapalli Prasanna was given the Lifetime Achievement award while
Australia got the Team of the Year award.

Indian off-spinner
Harbhajan Singh was given a special felicitation award for completing 300
wickets in Tests.

The International Spirit of Cricket award went to
Sri Lanka batsman Thilan Samaraweera who got injured in the Lahore terror attack
in March while his compatriot Ajantha Mendis bagged the ODI Bowler of the Year
award.

Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar said at the function that these
ratings are accurate as indicated by the fact that some of the previous
International Cricketer of the Year award winners were modern day greats Brian
Lara (West Indies), Muthiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) and Ricky Ponting
(Australia).

“Ceat Cricket Rating strives to focus on identifying
the right talent. The ratings are pretty much accurate as you can see some of
the modern greats like Brian Lara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting etc
winning the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year in the past,” he said.

While Gambhir got Rs 5 lakh for being named as the International
Cricketer of the Year, the other individual awards were worth Rs 2 lakh each
except Samaraweera’s which was worth Rs one lakh. Prasanna received Rs 5 lakh.
The Australian team was given Rs 10 lakh.

Gambhir said that his
contribution towards India’s Test series victory in New Zealand, after more than
three decades, had given him a lot of satisfaction.

“I was happy to
do something for India winning a Test series in New Zealand after 32 years,”
said Gambhir who batted for ten hours while making the match saving 137 at
Napier in the second Test again New Zealand during India’s visit between
February and April.

Gambhir said that he himself was surprised that
he could bat for so long.

“I myself was surprised that I could play
a long innings as I am not a patient guy,” he added.

The award winners:

International Cricketer of the Year and Test Batsman of the
Year – Gautam Gambhir (India)

ODI Batsman of the Year – Virender Sehwag
(India)

Test Bowler of the year – Mitchell Johnson (Australia)

ODI
Bowler of the year – Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)

Spirit of Cricket Award -
Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka)

300 Wickets Felicitation Award – Harbhajan
Singh (India)

Lifetime Achievement Award – EAS Prasanna (India).

COLOMBO: Frustrated with his failure
to provide Sri Lanka the breakthroughs in the ongoing Test series against India,
ace off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan says he is no longer the dreaded bowler he
used to be and might even retire completely before the 2011 World Cup.

Muralitharan, who has already announced his Test retirement after
next year’s series against the West Indies, said he may walk into the sunset
before the 2011 World Cup in the sub-continent. Sri Lanka is currently trailing
0-1 in the three-match Test series against India the final game of which starts
December 2 in Mumbai.

“I am 37 years old and I can’t bowl as much as
those days because after 15-16 overs I get tired. But I will try and play a
little bit of one-day cricket that’s only 10 overs to bowl. If I find everything
is not going well I might retire from both forms of the game before the World
Cup,” Muralitharan said.

“Everything depends on how much my body can
take. My body may hold for one-day cricket because it’s a fifty-over game. In
Test cricket it’s a little bit harder because I have always been a threat to
other sides. At the moment it’s not looking like that because others are playing
me well. I think I made the right decision to retire from Test cricket at the
end of the West Indies series next year,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The
Nation’.

Muralitharan said his body now struggles to respond to the
demands of international cricket’s grind and time has come for Sri Lanka to look
beyond him to get the results.

“Two to three years ago it was not
like this. Now you have niggles here and there and my groin is not the same as
it used to be. We got the worst conditions of bowling in the last two Tests. We
didn’t have the bowlers when we were bowling that was one of the factors. But
that’s the way cricket goes everything won’t work for you in your favour,” said
Muralitharan, who needs just 12 wickets to become the first bowler with 800 Test
scalps.

“There was a time the team was dependent on me for wickets
but it has to change. Others must also get a chance Rangana (Herath) is bowling
well and (Ajantha) Mendis. They will have to carry through in the years to come.

“Whatever I did in the last 18 years is not possible for anybody to
achieve because I ran through sides alone getting five-for in an innings 66
times and 22 ten-wicket match hauls. One single spinner cannot achieve that but
as a collective unit of bowlers they can take wickets against oppositions. We
have fast bowlers and spinners and they are good enough to do
that.”

Muralitharan, who is on his fourth and last tour of India, has
been struggling to come to terms with the placid Indian pitches and the hosts’
strong batting line-up which has treated him harshly in the series so far.

The world’s highest Test wicket taker’s bowling figures after the
two Tests so far are ordinary to say the least — five wickets for 396 runs –
at an average 79.20.

“I’ve played only seven Test matches this year,
two against Bangladesh, two against Pakistan where it was a dead rubber series
and two against New Zealand when I really did well bowling in the second innings
of the second Test with a groin injury. Whenever the side wanted a breakthrough
I’ve got it for them in the New Zealand series. I don’t why it’s not happening
here,” he said.

“But, every cricketer has to go through
disappointments. Everything you want to happen in life won’t happen something
will be missing. Looking back I can say what an amazing career I have gone
through but if we can’t win in India that’s it. Life has to go on,” he was
quoted as saying by ‘The Nation’.

KANPUR: A dominant India took
one-and-half sessions to complete the formalities and spank Sri Lanka by an
innings and 144 runs in the second Test to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match
series. (

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Video

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Scorecard

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In Pics

This turned out
to be India’s 100th Test victory in their 432nd outing. (

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The visitors began 57 for four and did their best to delay
the inevitable before the Indians polished off the remnants of the Lankan
resistance to complete a facile win with more than four sessions to spare.

Sri Lankans, who managed 229 in the first innings, did slightly
better in their second essay, folding for 269.

India thus became the
sixth nation to win 100 Test matches, following Australia (332), England (310),
West Indies (152), South Africa (120) and Pakistan (102).

This was
also India’s biggest victory margin against the Lankans, in terms of innings.
The previous mark was their thrashing of the islanders by an innings and 119
runs in the 1994 Lucknow Test.

With six wickets separating the
Lankans from a defeat and two full days at India’s disposal, the islanders’
capitulation was just a matter of time and the four wickets they lost in the
morning session only hastened their end.

Thilan Samaraweera (78 not
out) and Ajantha Mendis (27) did resist the Indians for nearly 20 overs with a
gritty 73-run stand but it was too little and merely a footnote in the context
of the match.

Both the teams now move to Mumbai for the third and
final Test starting from December 2.

Sri Lanka’s distant hopes of
stretching the match into its final day were in tatters in the morning session
itself when they lost four wickets to expose their lower
half.

Realising the futility of grafting, overnight batsmen Angelo
Mathews (15) decided to counter-attack and chose out-of-rhythm Zaheer Khan for
the treatment.

Zaheer’s overpitched first ball of the day was driven
down the ground, his second — a no ball — was pulled to the fence with
ferocity and his third — again a no ball — scorched the cover area grass
before crossing the rope.

Two balls later, Zaheer had the score
settled. The left-arm seamer banged it short and Mathews’ pull was a little
premature. Rahul Dravid rushed from gully to pouch the top edge.

Mathews’ exit meant the collective contribution of the Sri Lankan
top order read a pathetic 79.

Prasanna Jayawardene (29) and
Samaraweera batted positively, scoring at a brisk rate while not doing anything
silly.

Samaraweera hit Sreesanth for three boundaries in the same
over to assert himself, while Prasanna was not quiet either.

The Sri
Lankan stumper-batsman drove Zaheer, pulled Sreesanth and swept Pragyan Ojha
with elan but looked ill at ease against Harbhajan Singh.

Two
streaky boundaries off Harbhajan exposed his discomfiture against the offie and
the spinner finally pushed one through the gate to rearrange the timbers to snap
the sixth wicket stand that yielded 61 runs for the beleaguered islanders.

Rangana Herath (13) hit Harbhajan for back-to-back boundaries before
the offie trapped him plumb in front.

Muttiah Muralitharan played a
typical entertaining 11-ball knock of 29. The first three balls he faced, from
Harbhajan, were hit for 6,4,4. The first one cleared long on ropes and the next
two went over mid-wicket.

Muralitharan then went after Ojha, hitting
him over long on for his second six but completely missed the line as the next
delivery pegged back the stumps.

Samaraweera and Mendis, who hit a
career-best 27, however, refused to throw in the towel and dug their heels to
frustrate the Indian players for about 20 overs.

The fact that the
intensity of the Indians sagged after three days of dominance also helped their
cause.

Mendis survived 74 balls before the 75th, sent down by Yuvraj
Singh, trapped him in front of wicket to snap the 73-run stand. Ojha then caught
Chanaka Welegedara (4) off his own bowling to complete the win.