By: Tarish Bhatt
It is a rare sight seeing an Indian pacer bowling with bite and aggression, rattling the opposition and ensuring a victory. And, Ishant Sharma did exactly that in the 3rd Test against Sri Lanka at the SSC.
Ishant Sharma was on-song and easily touching the 145 kmph mark, and Sri Lanka batsmen had no answers to the aggression of the lanky pacer, as they were ripped apart by the Delhi lad.
The ICC thought Ishant Sharma got carried away a bit, and handed him a match ban for his intimidating send off to Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal, in particular.
But, the way Ishant bowled and his attitude made Virat Kohli to praise his bowling spearhead, and this is all that matters at the end.
“I was very happy with the incident when he was batting,” Virat Kohli said. “It happened at the right time for us because we had to bowl yesterday and they made him angry. It couldn’t have happened at a better time for us.”
“And the timing was absolutely perfect and everything fell in place for us as far as being aggressive is concerned,” he added. “(Look) at the way he bowled in the second innings…he didn’t concede a boundary for 19 overs.”
“He bowled his heart out, like he has always done when the Indian team has needed to defend scores in Tests. If you remember Lord’s or even in Australia, he bowled his heart out.”
“I was very happy that he has an aggressive mindset,” Virat Kohli concluded. “An angry fast bowler is a captain’s delight. I was really happy to see what happened yesterday and it switched some things on in the right ways.”
Ishant Sharma finished with eight wickets in the game, including a fifer in the first innings, and completed 200 wickets in Test cricket.
His spell late in the fourth day revived memories of his spell against former Australia captain Ricky Pointing and lately against England at the Lord’s.
Ishant was impressive in the 2nd Test as well, and his sublime form with the ball helped Team India clinch 20 wickets in three successive matches.
