Harbhajan Singh hails Graeme Swann for success in South Africa
Indian spinner, Harbhajan Singh, has stated that he drew inspiration from the performance of England’s leading off-spinner Graeme Swann during the recent Test series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, which turned out to be a personal success for him as he took 15 wickets
in the three match series that ended in a draw.
The first Test match of that series was won by the hosts convincingly and Harbhajan failed to make an impression on a batting paradise at Centurion where the hosts amassed a total in excess of 600 runs on their way to an innings victory.
It all changed in the second match at Kingsmead in Durban as the tourists bounced back to level the series.
Harbhajan stated that he quickly realized after the mauling in the first Test that he had to change the line of his attack and the move paid rich dividends in the remainder of the series.
"In the first Test, I bowled a lot of balls in their areas, which made them comfortable. The line I was bowling was outside off stump but because the wicket was so true, the bounce was true, it was not spinning so much, so the South
African batsmen played on the back foot towards cover and point. The same ball they were able to drive, they were also able to walk across to and take a single on the leg side. You can't give runs on both sides of the wicket".
He also stated that some tips from former Indian all-rounder and renowned cricket commentator Ravi Shastri helped him greatly on the tour. Bhaji added that Shastri, who bowled left arm spin for his country, told him to concentrate
on bowling within the stumps so that he has lbw in the equation. Rather than solely concentrating on getting inside or outside edges off the bat.
He felt that when the batsman opts to play a cover drive he needs to open the face of the bat and hence would avoid playing the cut shot since the stumps were being targeted all the time.
The move was also set to trigger a tendency of playing horizontal bat shots like the sweep and other big heaves across the line that can easily cause the demise of the batsman if he miss-times the shots or is beaten altogether.
He felt that he could block all aggressive shots leaving the batsman with no choice but to play some adventurous shots. His moves worked well for him as he weaved a web around the batters in Durban and Cape Town Tests that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 dominated.
He felt that the idea was executed very well and it led to the demise of the prolific South African batsmen especially the run machine, Hashim Amla, who endured a rare series of failures in the last two Tests after starting the first
Test with a bang.
For the time being Bhaji is concentrating on taking his team to the World Cup title at home. A billion fans across the host nation are praying for their team’s success and the off-spinner has the weight of expectations on his shoulders.
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