Harbhajan positive after fightback
On a day when Sourav Ganguly and Irfan Pathan saved Indian blushes, it was Harbhajan Singh - whose cavalier 47 in the final session exasperated the bowlers - that came to address the media
Dileep Premachandran
07-Dec-2006
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Harbhajan sounded bullish after contributing his bit to a determined
fightback. "We can take a lot of confidence from today's batting
performance," he said. "When you make 300 runs in a day, it's a
big positive. One of our goals coming into this game was to make 300 runs
in a day. That has been achieved. Now we need to do well with the ball as
well. The way Sourav [Ganguly] and Irfan [Pathan] batted was very
heartening."
He refused to point the finger at any of his top-order mates, whose
slipshod batting against the pace of Morne Morkel had India reeling at 69
for 5 at lunch. "I feel it's always just a matter of one innings," he
said. "All these batsmen have been successful in the past, and there's no
reason why they can't score again. I think once they make runs in one
innings, they will start contributing regularly.
"If we play to our potential in the Test matches, the seamers and spinners
as well as the batsmen, we can do a good job against South Africa. I'm
looking forward to bowling here. I don't know if it will help the
spinners, but it will be good to get a long bowl before the first Test,
should I play in that match."
One person who won't be playing any part at the Wanderers next week is
Morkel, but surely the day's not far off when he'll get his first national
cap. He had figures of 4 for 29 before lunch, finishing the day with 4 for
74. Had Vaughn van Jaarsveld not spilled Ganguly in the gully, and Jacques
Rudolph not dropped Zaheer Khan late in the day, the figures would have
been even more impressive.
When asked about the experience, Morkel called it a privilege to bowl to
the likes of Sachin Tendulkar. "They were my heroes growing up," he said.
"I was lucky enough to be able to play against them today, and to get them
out was very special. I can go home now and sleep well tonight, knowing
that I have gone a good job."
Allan Donald had written recently that he considers the 22-year-old Morkel
South Africa's next potential fast bowler, and there were definitely
shades of the man they called White Lightning as he scythed through the
top order using pace and bounce as his primary weapons. "I had my own
little plans for them," he added. "I had an idea what lengths to bowl to
them. I wanted to hit the deck hard and get it to climb. I could've had a
five-for but unfortunately, a couple of catches did not stick."
On a day where he did very little wrong, the Indians will be grateful for
those small mercies.
Dileep Premachandran is features editor of Cricinfo