Full marks to Harbhajan

It was a wonderful bowling performance from India at Centurion. What stood out even as the team successfully defended a moderate target of 233 against a formidable home batting line-up was its positive attitude.

Frankly, the stirring display of the Indians left this columnist surprised. It was nice to see the youngsters taking up the responsibility and getting the job done.

The idea in any form of cricket, even in the world of ODIs, where stopping the flow of runs is vital, should be to pick wickets at regular intervals. This automatically checks the run- rate.

Full marks to Harbhajan Singh, who displayed remarkable confidence in himself after being left out of the first game. This speaks for the off-spinner's resilience and his resolve to fight back.

The Sardar bowled like he would do in a Test match, flighting the ball, getting it to spin, bringing in subtle variations and having the batsmen in two minds. The element of guile was unmistakable in Harbhajan's testing deliveries.

And the manner in which he consumed dangerman Jacques Kallis reflected this aggressive approach, a willingness to buy his wickets. Indeed, a match-winning blow for India.

Senior leg-spinner Anil Kumble too played his part, and the idea of playing two spinners in the XI certainly worked for India. Watching the spin duo strike, one was reminded of the WCC tournament in the mid-80s in Australia, where leggie L. Sivaramakrishnan had the batsmen in knots.

Harbhajan and Kumble's success also meant South African captain Shaun Pollock's magnificent performance with the ball earlier in the day went in vain. Well, that's the way the game goes.

Credit is due to pacemen Ajit Agarkar and Javagal Srinath, who kept the pressure on the South Africans, and struck early. Getting the initial breakthroughs is always important as the team begins to believe in itself and the fielders are charged.

Agarkar, who also took a brilliant catch in the deep to send back Mark Boucher, just when the Proteas were sneaking back into the game, is operating to a nice rhythm and he is a useful bowler in these conditions.

Coming to the Indian innings, Yuveraj Singh and Virendra Sehwag accelerated the scoring at a critical juncture, yet at least one of them should have carried on till the end, and more runs would have automatically come.

Apart from being fine shot-makers both are young and should realise the value of leaving nothing unfinished. In other words, they should cash in on good starts.

Eventually, India was dismissed in 48.5 overs, which doesn't present the lower order in good light. Failure to last full 50 overs of a ODI innings is a shame really, and it is not the first occasion India has fallen in this fashion.

The root cause lies in the middle-overs, where the Indians continue to falter. The emphasis should be on ones and twos, with the odd boundary in between, yet too many of our batsmen perish while attempting big hits.

The team-management has to really work on this aspect - leaving seven balls unutilised could prove very costly indeed in a `Big Game' like the final. There is still considerable scope for improvement in the art of `planning' an innings.

That the bowlers got the job done for India this time around is another matter altogether.

K. SRIKKANTH

www.krishsrikkanth.com

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