da roleta： 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
da marjack bet： Dileep Premachandran07-Dec-2006
Harbhajan Singh believes it is only a matter of time until India’s top order starts scoring again © Getty Images
On a day when Sourav Ganguly and Irfan Pathan saved Indian blushes, it wasHarbhajan Singh – whose cavalier 47 in the final session exasperated thebowlers – that came to address the media. The official line was that bothmen were too exhausted, though it didn’t stop them jogging around the parkwith their team-mates as the evening shadows lengthened across SedgarsPark.Harbhajan sounded bullish after contributing his bit to a determinedfightback. “We can take a lot of confidence from today’s battingperformance,” he said. “When you make 300 runs in a day, it’s abig positive. One of our goals coming into this game was to make 300 runsin a day. That has been achieved. Now we need to do well with the ball aswell. The way Sourav [Ganguly] and Irfan [Pathan] batted was veryheartening.”He refused to point the finger at any of his top-order mates, whoseslipshod batting against the pace of Morne Morkel had India reeling at 69for 5 at lunch. “I feel it’s always just a matter of one innings,” hesaid. “All these batsmen have been successful in the past, and there’s noreason why they can’t score again. I think once they make runs in oneinnings, they will start contributing regularly.”If we play to our potential in the Test matches, the seamers and spinnersas well as the batsmen, we can do a good job against South Africa. I’mlooking forward to bowling here. I don’t know if it will help thespinners, 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 isMorkel, but surely the day’s not far off when he’ll get his first nationalcap. He had figures of 4 for 29 before lunch, finishing the day with 4 for74. Had Vaughn van Jaarsveld not spilled Ganguly in the gully, and JacquesRudolph not dropped Zaheer Khan late in the day, the figures would havebeen even more impressive.When asked about the experience, Morkel called it a privilege to bowl tothe 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 themout was very special. I can go home now and sleep well tonight, knowingthat I have gone a good job.”Allan Donald had written recently that he considers the 22-year-old MorkelSouth Africa’s next potential fast bowler, and there were definitelyshades of the man they called White Lightning as he scythed through thetop order using pace and bounce as his primary weapons. “I had my ownlittle plans for them,” he added. “I had an idea what lengths to bowl tothem. I wanted to hit the deck hard and get it to climb. I could’ve had afive-for but unfortunately, a couple of catches did not stick.”On a day where he did very little wrong, the Indians will be grateful forthose small mercies.
