S Sreesanth celebrates his 1st wicket in first-class cricket after nine long years: I was just overjoyed

Kerala pacer S Sreesanth picked up his first wicket in first-class cricket after nine years when he dismissed Aryan Bora in the Ranji Trophy match against Meghalaya and gave his “Pranaam” to the cricket pitch.

After taking the wicket, Sreesanth was seen lying down on the ground and kissing the pitch. Sreesanth registered figures of 2 for 40 in his 11.5 overs in the first innings but did not take any wickets in the second innings.

Now that’s my 1st wicket after 9 long years..gods grace I was just over joyed and giving my Pranaam to the wicket .. #grateful #cricket #ketalacricket #bcci #india #Priceless pic.twitter.com/53JkZVUhoG

— Sreesanth (@sreesanth36) March 2, 2022

“Now that’s my 1st wicket after 9 long years..gods grace I was just overjoyed and giving my Pranaam to the wicket .. #grateful #cricket #ketalacricket #bcci #india #Priceless,” Sreesanth captioned the video of his celebration.

Sreesanth is playing first-class cricket for the first time since 2013. The 38-year-old has 213 wickets in FC cricket, which includes six five-wicket hauls as well.

Sreesanth was serving a life ban from cricket for his alleged involvement in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal, which was reduced to 7 years after several appeals. Sreesanth, who featured in 27 Tests, 53 ODIs and 10 T20Is for Team India, last played international cricket in August 2011.

Sreesanth was acquitted of all charges in 2015 by a special court, after which the Kerala High Court quashed his life ban in 2018.

However, a division bench of the High Court restored the ban, after which Sreesanth approached the Supreme Court. While the apex court upheld his guilt, it recommended the BCCI reduce the punishment term.

In August 2019, BCCI ombudsman DK Jain reduced the life ban to 7 years, which ended in September 2020.