What's eating Sree Santh, or what did Sree Santh eat

He blew it, didn't he? Gone and put himself under avoidable pressure for the Third Test in what was already a pressure cooker of a series. The second Test was a great opportunity for Mr Santh: perfect conditions for swing bowling and two left arm seamers hunting alongside, spitting fire. Instead of playing the role of the stock seamer who keep things tight at the other end, Sree wanted a piece of the action, and as anyone who has spent time watching cricket would say, "tried too hard." Even amidst all the trash that he was bowling, there were some genuine gems. But what good are they, when they are so few and far apart? It's not like Dravid really needed any more of the "surprise factor"! The second Test touched a new low when, consumed by emotion, he committed a couple of extremely 'suspicious' looking errors. And that was after the very public and humiliating loss of rhythm when he ended up looking like Kapil Dev one ball, and Kumble the next.

Is he a victim of the "greatness" tag attached to him too early in life? He had a fair bit of good press after a remarkable display in South Africa. The obvious underlying danger was that he would go the way of similarly talented youngsters: Kambli, L Siva and Sadanad Viswanath are names that come easily to mind and certainly there must be more. More recently, many youngsters have promised much and then dropped off: Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina for instance, but it is too early to write them off. Anyway...

The good thing is, Sree seems to be making the right noises. And the way he comes out in the next match (if Dravid would be so kind as to pick him) will let us know a bit more into the workings of this deep-fried brain. He should have known that somebody like Bose would step and make some noise or take a five-for or something like that. As I said before, completely unnecessary pressure.