India puts it across South Africa

By G. Viswanath

CENTURION, OCT. 11. The name of the ground and the surroundings may have changed in the last decade, but Centurion, where captains of two national teams, South Africa's Hansie Cronje and England's Nasser Hussein contrived to get a result to a Test match not so long ago, once again proved to be a lucky venue for the Indians.

The second match between the Indians and South Africans was a complete contrast to the one played at `The Wanderers'. The batsmen of both the sides had dominated the match for nearly hundred overs at `The Wanderers' with the bowlers conceding a lot on a belter of a pitch. The Indians made 279 and the South Africans overwhelmed with wicket to spare and Gary Kirsten playing the match-winning role.

Four days later the bowlers, ranging from the category of speed and spin, succeeded in outwitting the batsmen, though the surface may not have shown a distinct bias to them. Victory for the Indians became a reality because they placed their trust on a type of bowling that has been traditionally India's forte.

Harbhajan Singh was the ace in India's pack of spinners, the others being the experienced and a man with a proven record, Anil Kumble and newcomer Virendra Sehwag. The three were responsible for the dismissals of seven South African batsmen, among whom only the eighth-wicket pair in Lance Klusener and Mark Boucher offered resistance. But their reargaurd in the form of 77-run stand came too late in the night. Two fine catches by Ajit Agarkar and Yuveraj Singh hastened defeat for the South Africans.

A lot of thought had gone into the selection of Harbhajan Singh. He might not have proved as formidable a practitioner of off-spin bowling in Sri Lanka as he had in the home series against Australia and Zimbabwe to an extent. Harbhajan, like many of his teammates in the team, Shiv Sundar Das, Yuveraj Singh and Virendra Sehwag, has the backing of a man who is the captain of the side. It was essentially Ganguly's decision to pick him at the expense of Venkatesh Prasad, though the pitch was expected the help the fast bowlers.

Harbhajan Singh's inclusion in the eleven was speculated for three days; on Wednesday he made it to play his first international in South Africa. The bowler who had been such a spectacular success against Steve Waugh's team was bound to come good. Ganguly must get the credit for introducing him into the attack at specific point time in the South African run chase. He brought him in the 17th over after Kumble had struck in his first spell taking the wickets of Neil McKenzie and Jonty Rhodes.

By the middle of the sixteen over the South Africans appeared to be running out of luck at 76 for 4 wickets; by the 23rd Harbhajan had perhaps sealed their fate, taking the three important wickets of Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock and Nicky Boje. ``It was my strategy. Nicky (Boje) is a good batsman against spinners. I decided to come ahead of the batsmen Klusener and Boucher,'' said Pollock justifying his decision to promote himself and the specialist left-arm spinner.

The South African captain's move failed to click. Both he and Boje (who made 9 off 19 balls) had no answer to Harbhajan's bag of tricks. The off-spinner bowled ten straight overs, sustained the pressure on Klusener and Boucher and ended with remarkable figures of 10-0-27-3, which straightaway won him the `Man of the Match' award and also prompted the South African media to ask awkward questions to Pollock, who acknowledged Harbhajan's fine bowling, but said: ``I think we will see footages of his bowling and try to make necessary adjustments. I think we played Kumble well, scoring four runs an over of him.''

Ganguly's response was matter of fact when asked what he thought of South Africa's batting against Harbhajan Singh and against the spinners in general. ``Well, South Africa is the only country that has beaten India at home on 13 years. But I think our bowlers, almost everybody bowled well. Another highlight was our fielding. This has been largely due to the effort of Wright,'' said Ganguly.

Sense of purpose in bowling

There was a sense of purpose in the Indian bowlers, most notably Javagal Srinath and Ajit Agarkar. They picked up a wicket each in their first spells. Agarkar had Herschelle Gibbs, closing the bat and edging to Sehwag at second slip and Srinath forced Kirsten to drag the ball on to his stumps. But Kallis appeared ominous, driving square of the wicket and straight, too off Agarkar and Srinath. Kumble and Harbhajan put the skids on him, before the latter, dragged him out of his crease.

The dismissal of Jonty Rhodes saw the South African captain take a brisk walk to the middle. Pollock has pulled his team out of troubled waters many times in the past, but he and Boje were clueless against Harbhajan. Even someone like Klusener who has singlehandedly won matches, did not risk chances against the Indians spinners that included Sehwag. Klusener and Boucher showed defiance and in between hit the ball hard to the deep, but after holding on for nearly 20 overs, caved in under pressure.

It was a day when the Indian fielding, too, appeared to have improved by a few notches. Sehwag, Srinath and Agarkar went sprawling on the ground in an attempt to stop the ball from crossing the boundary line. And the closing minutes of the match, Agarkar and Yuveraj held high catches when they could have easily lost sight of the ball after 10 p.m. The spinners were hampered by a wet ball caused by dew, but it was one night they overcame all odds and won a match for their country.

SCOREBOARD

India 233 (all out in 48.4 overs)

SOUTH AFRICA

G. Kirsten b Srinath                12
(37m, 29b, 2x4)
H. Gibbs c Sehwag b Agarkar          1
(6m, 3b)
J. Kallis st. Dasgupta b Harbhajan  29
(75m, 35b, 4x4)
N. McKenzie b Kumble                21
(23m, 25b, 2x4, 1x6)
J. Rhodes c Dravid b Kumble          8
(8m, 4b, 1x4)
S. Pollock lbw b Harbhajan          15
(39m, 29b, 2x4)
N. Boje lbw b Harbhajan              9
(17m, 19b)
L. Klusener c Yuveraj b Agarkar     44
(108m, 70b, 3x4)
M. Boucher c Agarkar b Sehwag       38
(82m, 56b, 3x4)
M. Ntini b Sehwag                    1
(10m, 5b)
A. Nel (not out)                     0
(6m, 5b)
Extras (b-2, lb-4, nb-3, w-5)       14
                                   ---  
Total (in 46.2 overs)              192
                                   ---  

Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Gibbs), 2-38 (Kristen), 3-66 (McKenzie), 4-
76 (Rhodes), 5-85 (Kallis), 6-101 (Boje), 7-106 (Pollock),  8-183 
(Boucher), 9-188 (Ntini).

India bowling: Srinath 6-0-32-1, Agarkar 8.2-0-40-2, Kumble 10-0-
42-2, Harbhajan 10-0-27-3, Tendulkar 4-0-21-0, Sehwag 8-1-24- 2.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Next     : Kenyans find the going tough