Harbhajan's form in the Test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754
India's Harbhajan Singh is easily one of the best spinners in modern cricket. His recent performances have been some of the best in his career, and make him one of India’s most dangerous players at this moment in time.
India has always been able to find quality spinners for their side, and spin bowling has always been the main strength of their bowling department. At home the Indian spin attack can easily be described as the most threatening for any touring side, and most
of the teams from outside the sub-continent have found it difficult to score runs off the Indian spinners.
Harbhajan’s strength is that he bowls well both at home and abroad, and with the first Test set to start tomorrow, it remains to be seen how the South Africans try to counter him. No one can forget his performance in the 2001 series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, in
which he single handedly destroyed the Australian batting line-up. The New Zealand series has also been a wonderful experience for the off spinner, who was clearly in top form against the Kiwis. The South African series will be an interesting one for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750,
and it remains to be seen how much of an impact the spinners will have over the course of the matches.
The recent New Zealand series was a wonderful experience for Harbhajan Singh, since he was successful with both the ball and with the bat. He scored two centuries in the series, and helped India out of some very difficult situations. He was clearly the best
spinner in Indian side, and bowled with a lot of variety in the series. One Indian commentator labeled Harbhajan Singh as the next Garry Sobers, after his all round performance in the series. Though the comment was a bit far fetched, it just went to show how
much Harbhajan has matured as a player.
The South African’s have always found it difficult to play against quality spin and Harbhajan is one spinner who has a good record against them. The first Test against New Zealand proved Harbhajan’s maturity as a player to the world. In the first innings,
he scored a gutsy 69-runs to lead India to a competitive total. In the second innings he was simply amazing with the bat, as he scored a patient century at a crucial time for the Indians in the game. At one stage the home team was struggling at 69 for six,
and was in danger of being bowled out cheaply. Harbhajan put together a 163 run stand for the sixth wicket with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772 to rescue his side from a possible loss.
It was a remarkably patient innings from Harbhajan, and the quality of his batting was to score runs whenever an opportunity was given to him. His bowling though wasn’t too impressive in the opening Test.
The second Test was almost a repeat of the first, but this time Harbhajan was successful with both bat and ball. In the first innings, he took four important wickets to restrict New Zealand to a score of 350. He again batted with a lot of confidence, and
scored his second test hundred in India’s first innings. It was a much quicker hundred compared to his previous one and featured seven towering sixes.
It was quite heartening for India to see their main off spinner contributing regularly with the bat. The quality of his second hundred was the fact that he batted with the lower order, and tried his best to take guide India to a respectable total. He also
bowled with a lot of discipline, and frustrated the Kiwi batsmen. He bowled with a lot of flight and tested the New Zealand batsmen throughout their innings. It is quite important for a spinner to put the batsmen under pressure, which is something Harbhajan
has done well for India over the years. In the third Test, he was again efficient with the ball, and bowled with a lot of discipline.
India have never won a Test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, and if Harbhajan can deliver with both bat and ball in that series, then India would fancy their chances a lot.
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