Temperamental Indian pacer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who came in the team as replacement for injured Zaheer Khan, said the booing he received from the Trent Bridge crowd motivated him to do well during England's first innings in the second cricket Test here on Friday.
Making a comeback to the Test team in place of Zaheer, Sreesanth sparkled in the seam-friendly Trent Bride conditions and returned with figures of three for 77, which includes the wickets of Jonathan Trot, last match double centurion Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior.
Sreesanth and his pace colleagues Praveen Kumar (3/45) and Ishant Sharma (3/66) wreaked havoc in the cloudy conditions to bowl out England for 221 in their first innings.
"You leave me alone and I might do something else but when you say I can't do it, I do my very best, indeed better than the best. Thanks to them (crowd) for cheering me up," said the fiery right-arm pacer.
Sreesanth termed his stint with Warwickshire last year as the reason for his improvement as a fast bowler.
"Those four months with Warwickshire really helped me. (Warwickshire coach) Allan Donald worked with me. I used to try and do a lot of things. I used to bowl out-swingers but he taught me to bring the ball in. A few little things like where to bowl, how to bowl, observe the stance of a batsman. Those 3-4 months (in county cricket) surely helped me," he said.
The Kerala speedster was of the view that he has now matured as a bowler.
"I just kept it simple. Since the wicket was doing it, I just had to hit the seam. It isn't as if I quickly learnt to bowl the English length. For a fast bowler, it is important to hit the right area right length," Sreesanth said.
Talking about dangerman Pietersen's wicket, Sreesanth said that he initially tried to fox the batsman with bouncers which didn't work but was happy to get his wicket eventually.
"Pietersen is not exactly comfortable against bouncers. It was part of our plan. I first tried slower and then faster bouncers but both went for boundaries.
"It was still nice to get him out and thankfully, I had the last laugh at the end of the day," he said.
He also wasn't too upset that England managed to stage a recovery from a precarious position through the 73-run ninth-wicket stand between Stuart Broad (64) and Graeme Swann (28).
"We knew one partnership would surely come. Broad went after us and took his chances. There were couple of chances but he got away with it.
"It's good England is fighting and it should be a good game," Sreesanth said.
Sreesanth termed the Trent Bridge track as a bowler-friendly wicket.
"It's going to be a good wicket. It surely is swinging but the credit has to go to bowlers. If you bowl badly the batsmen will score runs."