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London, August 8: Troubled pacer S Sreesanth
has received some comforting words from Mahendra Singh Dhoni who
said the bowler's immediate apology after bowling a beamer at
Kevin Pietersen in the second Test was highly appreciable.
"Sreesanth is a tough rookie. He plays good
aggressive cricket. I'm glad he said 'sorry' to Pietersen after
the beamer," Dhoni said here today.
"It (the beamer) may not have been
intentional but it was still pretty accurate.
"At the end of the day, it not just the
captain who has to ask his players to exercise restraint but
it's also up to every individual to try and play within the
rules." Sreesanth's spell on the fourth day of the second Test
at Trent Bridge last week, which included a two-foot no-ball and
a shoulder contact with England captain Michael Vaughan besides
the beamer to Pietersen, has come under flak.
The right-arm pacer was fined 50 percent of
his match fee for barging into Vaughan but former England
captain Michael Atherton called for Sreesanth to be handed a
one-match for bowling a beamer. Dhoni, who was made the captain
of Twenty-20 World Cup side today, stressed that his team was
focused on the job ahead of the crucial third and final Test at
The Oval from Thursday.
"We have a decent chance of winning a series
abroad and we are all focused in winning an away series against
a good side," said Dhoni. "It's a crucial Test for both sides
and both team will look forward to play some good and aggressive
cricket." To a query on whether the team had gone off the boil
in the warm up game, Dhoni replied in the negative.
"Intensity wise, we are pretty focused. It's
important to switch on and off, so when you get a break you got
to relax," he said. "Warm up games cannot have the same
intensity. But the important thing is that our bowlers got a
break. They have had to do a fair bit of work in the series.
"But if you look at the practice session today, it was very good
and intense. Everyone was keen on doing his best and be in top
shape." Asked what would the key to India's chances of halting
England's unbeaten run in home series since 2001, Dhoni said,
"it's about playing good cricket consistently. We got to try and
do well in every session."
To a query on India's problems in holding
onto the lead, he said, "we are not thinking of this game as the
last Test. Rather we are taking it as a one-Test series. We got
to give our best and hope for the best." (Agencies)
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