The Great Game Called Cricket...

Kolkata: "If I don't do well you will show me as one of '3 Idiots'. It is a shame and it should not be done" is how Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh lambasted the media for criticising him.

Fumed at the criticism for his recent poor performance, Harbhajan Singh, who helped India win the second Test against South Africa with a five wicket haul, said it was a fitting reminder to the media who have portrayed him as one of the '3 idiots', that he is still a match winner.

"I have been hearing a lot of things from the media but today they were on the receiving end. They (media) should be getting that kind of treatment because they should know what to play on national television and what not to play," said India’s spin spearhead.

Asked about his celebration in front of the press enclosure after clinching the last wicket, the feisty off-spinner said he was angry at the media for picking him whenever he had a lean phase.

"Thanks to all the media, they create sensations that Bhajji is not bowling, that Bhajji is doing this, doing that. We play for our country with a lot of passion and it disappoints all the players sometimes to see what characters they make out of us," Harbhajan said.

But if that is the way you want to sell your programmes we are not worried about that. I was there for a bigger purpose, I was playing for my country which was more than anything for me. I won a game for my country and that is a special feeling and I am sure the whole country is happy today," said Harbhajan who finished with five for 59 to give India a dramatic win.

He was also angry that a section of the media said that India's Test number one status was a fluke.

"There has been a lot of talk about us that it was a fluke to be the number one side and all that. It was not a fluke at all, we have worked really hard to reach the top and today we have showed the world that we deserve to be number one," he said.

Harbhajan was though all praise for the South Africans for putting up a tough fight in the series.

"To be honest, South Africa are really a good side and they played fantastic cricket in Nagpur. We played better cricket here and we set our fields, bowled according to the fields and we created pressure.

"We batted well, (VVS) Laxman was special, (MS) Dhoni was brilliant, Sachin (Tendulkar) was amazing and so was Viru (Virender Sehwag). I think overall we played terrific cricket and we are very happy," said the off-spinner.

has credited India for bouncing back and levelling the series, retaining the No. 1 Test team crown in the process, but he also praised his team for keeping the hosts waiting till almost the last minute.

"The game could have been easily over just after tea [on the first day] going by where we were sitting," Smith said. "If anything, we created pressure on India. In this series, they had everything to lose and we had everything to gain. So we have come up with our heads above the water in terms of what we have achieved."

However, Smith could not deny the fact that Thursday's result hurt South Africa, who once again came so close to winning a series in India for the second consecutive time as the home team escaped to series-levelling victory again in the final Test. Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince started the final day confidently but once Prince fell to a rare rush of blood just before lunch, the onus was solely on Amla to carry on the visitors' resistance. Wayne Parnell and Morne Morkel understood that all they needed to do was follow Amla's orders and they took the fight till the end.

"I think the grit and determination was there the whole day," Smith said. "The fact is we needed to come out and bat on a fifth-day wicket to save the Test match. Hashim is the glue who held it all together and we managed to find some guys to bat around him. Especially guys like Wayne and Morne, who got stuck in facing 50 to 60 balls, which is a terrific effort from a tailender under these conditions."

Smith felt the team had shown their will after the collapse after tea on the first day. Seven South African wickets fell from a position of 228 for 2 at the end of the second session; after the 100-plus partnership between Amla and debutant Alviro Petersen, the batting succumbed to pressure and good bowling.

"We just let ourselves down in the last session [on the first day] and gave India the advantage, which they took with both hands," Smith said. "We know that in the subcontinent it is very difficult to play catch-up cricket. Once we gave them the upper hand, they really drove the bus through the door."
Comparing the two Tests, Smith felt South Africa lacked precision in Kolkata, as opposed to the clinical victory in Nagpur. "We were not precise enough in our first innings with bat and ball. We dropped a few chances and we never really bowled in the right areas like we did in Nagpur."

Four catches and a stumping were missed during the Indian innings, resulting in four centuries from Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni. It was also surprising to see the waywardness of Dale Steyn, Morkel, Parnell and Paul Harris after their accuracy in the first Test. "They [India] scored at a high rate, which we weren't able to control with the ball, which probably was disappointing as well," Smith said. "We started the Test in a really solid way. At tea [on the first day], we were sitting really pretty. Then we just go into a situation where we lost two in-batters [Petersen and Jacques Kallis]."

Smith added the failure of rest of the middle order hurt the team's chances. "The guys coming in were lacking in confidence and suddenly wickets fell in a chunk and the pressure was created as it was the case with India in Nagpur where we were able to create pressure on them with the reverse swinging ball," he said.

He also confessed that the presence of Mark Boucher, sitting out with to a back injury, could have helped them take control of the situation. "Maybe, that is where we lacked someone with experience, someone like Mark [Boucher], who has played a huge amount of Test cricket," Smith said. "We just never had anyone who could stop the momentum that India gained in that last period. There were nine balls left but 20 minutes of play [as well]. The way India were getting through the overs we probably would have got another three or four overs after that."

Smith is returning home tonight, after being ruled out of the ODI series with a finger injury sustained on the eve of the second Test. Even if South Africa are likely to feel his absence, Smith had a positive message for his team. "The fact that we have been able to come and draw in India is a credit to in itself. If you look at recent stats and recent records of teams that have come here, not many teams have been able to push India like we have been able to push them in these conditions. So that is a positive for us and the credit to our character."

We just let ourselves down in the last session [on the first day] and gave India the upper hand and they took it with both hands. We know that in the subcontinent it is very difficult to play catch-up cricket. Once we gave them the upper hand, they really drove the bus through the door

Discretion has never been a quality associated with Harbhajan Singh and, after the euphoria of helping India to a series-levelling innings win came the outpouring of anger. Having sprinted more than halfway to the boundary to make his point to the media gallery, he didn't mince words at the press conference that followed.

"I have been hearing a lot of things from them [the media], but today they were on the receiving end," he said in response to an unrelated question. "They should be getting that kind of treatment because they should know what to play on national television and what not to play. We play for our country with a lot of passion and it disappoints all the players sometimes to see what characters they make out of us. If I don't do well on the ground they will show us as 3 Idiots (a Bollywood flick). Harbhajan is one of the idiots, MS Dhoni is the other. That is not right. I know it sounds funny but it is not.

"It's a shame and it should not be done. But if that is the way you want to sell your programmes, we are not worried about that. I was there for a bigger purpose. I was playing for my country, which means more than anything else for me. I won a game for my country and that is a special feeling."

The last 12 months have presented Harbhajan with a new challenge. Anil Kumble is no longer around to wheel away metronomically at the other end and, with neither Amit Mishra nor Pragyan Ojha established as India's second slow bowler, the onus has been on Harbhajan to deliver. Against South Africa at Eden Gardens on Thursday, that responsibility was increased by the thigh strain that prevented Zaheer Khan from even taking the field.

"Zaheer was definitely missed in the second innings," said Harbhajan. "I think all three bowlers and Sehwag also, the fourth bowler, we have taken the pressure, we have taken the responsibility. We knew that we were one guy short and we had to do it with whatever resources we had.

"I think Zaheer has been fantastic in the last three or four series. We have got the unit, we have got young bowlers, talented bowlers and we need to help them. As for myself, I need to work hard in the nets and keep on getting better and fitter so I can perform well in the future."

There was praise too for Mishra, whose every step is dogged by the shadow of Kumble. "Those are big shoes to fill," he said. "Anil bhai was fantastic from the other end and Mishra is still very new and young in international cricket. He is learning everyday but he bowled well in the second innings and even in the first innings. He is improving with every game and I am sure he will play for India for a long time."

As for him, the love affair with Eden Gardens remains a passionate one. "Every player has his own special ground. Anil bhai always enjoyed bowling in Delhi and I always enjoyed bowling at the Eden Gardens because I have always done well here.

"The crowd was fantastic. Eden has always been special. I have not heard this kind of noise anywhere in India. In Test matches, we don't even get crowds but Eden is probably the best ground as you get the crowds for the whole five days. It does not matter whether India is batting or bowling, so it's fantastic."

Despite widespread criticism of his performance in Nagpur, Harbhajan insisted he had changed very little for this match. "The whole game I have been just been very relaxed and I knew that if I bowled in the right areas then I would create the opportunities to get batsmen out. I was very focused and I knew what I was doing. I knew my plans and we got it right. I wanted to pitch the ball up and I wanted to get him [Morkel] leg before wicket or bat-pad at silly point or in the slips, so there were a lot of options. That is what I was trying to do by keeping things simple."

Having snatched victory at the last, there was appreciation too for Hashim Amla's lionhearted display. "Obviously Amla batted very well," he said. "Most of the teams when they come here, they don't know much about the spin, whether it is turning, bouncing or keeping low from the wicket. But he was very calm throughout his batting and that was probably the key. He kept on playing his style of cricket, he never took any chances, he never looked to do something fancy, he just played cricketing shots. I think he was the best batsman in the South African batting line-up."

In the build-up to this game, media reports referred to Harbhajan seeking advice from Kumble, but having bowled through the pain barrier - "I was in a lot of pain today. My shin was hurting but I tried to bowl the way I can do" - he scotched such speculation. "Anil Kumble will probably always be the one who will call me and tell me that there is nothing wrong with you. It's just that you guys [media] have been creating sensational stories and calling Kumble to ask what is wrong with Harbhajan.

"He just told me to be the way you are and you will bowl well. 'You have taken 300-plus wickets and it doesn't come through fluke. You know what you can do and I have played so much with you. You just have to be confident and it is just a matter of time before you will get the wickets'. He was pretty much right. I would like to give him big thanks for the advice and even on the field settings for batsmen like Jacques Kallis."

In Harbhajan's eyes, the drawn series was a fair reflection of nine days that saw some exceptional cricket played. "To be honest, South Africa are a really good side and they played fantastic cricket in Nagpur. I wish we had won the toss in Nagpur. Things might have been different. We played better cricket here and we set our fields, bowled according to the fields and we created pressure. We batted well - Laxman was special, Dhoni was brilliant, Sachin was amazing and so was Viru. I think overall we played terrific cricket and we are very happy.

"We have learnt that if we fight till the end, we will do special things. Everyone was up for the fight and we knew that it was an important game for all of us. There has been a lot of talk about us that it was a fluke to be the number-one side and all that. It was not a fluke at all. We have worked really hard to reach the top and today we have shown the world that we deserve to be number one. I hope now you guys will put some positive stories about it."


I wish we had won the toss in Nagpur. Things might have been different. We played better cricket here and we set our fields, bowled according to the fields and we created pressure. We have learnt that if we fight till the end, we will do special things

As Amit Mishra bowled the 131st over of the innings, with South Africa a minimum of 18 balls from survival, the stands at the Eden Gardens resembled a cauldron about to bubble over. The only man impervious to it all was Hashim Amla. Leg break, googly, slider - it made no difference to him. As each ball was painstakingly kept out with no hint of fatigue, some fans became exasperated. A policeman stormed off in a huff to smoke in the stairwell, a young man stamped his feet and others just groaned.

Then, as though they were aware of how the collective mood might affect those on the field, the backdrop was transformed. By the time Harbhajan Singh had the ball in his hand at the High Court End, most people in the crowd were on their feet. Many clapped a staccato beat, others roared. A turbaned Sikh at the front of the stand above the clubhouse waved the Indian flag as Sourav Ganguly had once whirled his shirt at Lord's. It could have been the Rumble in the Jungle.

It was pure theatre. When the umpire's finger went up three balls later and Morne Morkel sank to his knees in despair, the Eden roar that once celebrated the halting of an Australian juggernaut could be heard again. In their infinite wisdom, India's cricket administrators had scheduled no Test cricket here since December 2007, giving games to undeserving venues where barely a couple of thousand bother to turn up. Here, the 12th-man factor was undeniable, and it only reasserted why this hallowed ground is the true cathedral of Indian cricket.

Every great amphitheatre needs its heroes though, and India found several on a day when fortunes ebbed and flowed as they can only in the most intriguing form of the game. The loss of Zaheer Khan, usually so effective with the old ball, would have been disheartening but MS Dhoni mixed and matched his resources to get the best possible results.

Predictably, Harbhajan was right in the thick of things. Back in 2001, he had taken 13 of the Australian wickets to fall. And in 2004, it was his 7 for 87 in the second innings that clinched a series victory against Graeme Smith's side. There's something about the buzz at this ground that appeals to his gladiatorial instincts, and he was magnificent on a final-day pitch that was as far from being a bunsen as you could imagine.

Extra flight and a more tempting line ended Ashwell Prince's morning of defiance, while JP Duminy made the mistake of trying to negotiate him from well within the crease. Dale Steyn was clueless about one looped beautifully from round the wicket and then Morkel, after a 126-ball partnership with Amla, was struck on the pad by one that beat his tentative push. After some of the rubbish aired on television in the past week, you could forgive him the angry gesticulations. He had more than proved his point.

As had Mishra. Wicketless in Nagpur and discarded for the second Test in Bangladesh, he has had the unenviable task of trying to fit into Anil Kumble's size 11s. And while Harbhajan will get the plaudits, it shouldn't be forgotten that it was Mishra who removed two South African batsmen capable of playing epic innings, Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis. On the final day, he added the wicket of AB de Villiers, the hero of the Perth run-chase befuddled by a perfectly pitched googly.

Spare a thought too for Ishant Sharma, struggling for form and rhythm and entrusted with a man's job in Zaheer's absence. Some of the balls he bowled betrayed his problems, but he deserves immense credit for persevering. Wayne Parnell had annoyed the Indians for nearly 25 overs when Ishant induced a lazy stroke, and the wicket of Paul Harris, who played his part in the MCG heist of 2008, was just as vital.

And what of Dhoni? The purists will quibble at the fields he set, with the silly point missing for long periods and Amla given freedom to work the ball around, but he kept rotating the bowlers all day in conditions where you had to do far more than land the ball on a rough patch. The introduction of Sachin Tendulkar was almost an inspired move, with Morkel fortunate to survive a Warne-like delivery, and even when the game appeared to be slipping away, the mask of composure that he wears so well remained.

The victory against Australia at the Wankhede in 2004 had this edge-of-seat quality, albeit on a pitch that reduced batsmanship to roulette. But unlike that dead rubber, this was a match with plenty at stake. The media obsessed about the No.1 ranking, but for the players it was primarily about restoring pride after they had allowed South Africa to walk all over them in Nagpur.

Such tests of character and rites of passage are mandatory for any side aspiring for champion status. Over the past two years, India have passed several with flying colours. The greatest one awaits in South Africa at the end of the year. Given how this rivalry has grown in stature, that series can't come soon enough.

They couldn't out Hashim Amla at all. So India, down to three bowlers and led by an exceptional Harbhajan Singh, found a way around him, leaving him stranded with nine mandatory balls to go and sealing a heart-stopping, series-levelling win that also meant they retained the top spot in the ICC rankings. As was fitting, it was Harbhajan who brought about the final wicket with a slider to the left-hand batsman Morne Morkel, who had put together a 76-minute last-wicket stand with Amla. The final few steps didn't come easy for India: the last three wickets batted out 53.3 overs to set up a beautiful Test-match finish.

For eight hours and 19 minutes in this innings, which took to 23 hours and 22 minutes the total time he's spent at the wicket for the series, Amla saw everything: offbreaks, topspinners, unintended doosras, big legbreaks, googlies, bouncers, full ones, a blow to the elbow, the bowlers' joy, their frustration, and Harbhajan's eruption on taking the last wicket. At every stage - when he reached fifty or his hundred, when he was hurt, when he was concentrating, when he was defending, during those final few overs of counting each delivery down, and when he was walking back after one of the biggest disappointments he has experienced on a cricket field - the calm expression on his face was unchanged.

Amla batted like the Monk who didn't need to sell a Ferrari, and it took a special bowling effort to deny his side the series win. Harbhajan answered India's call with spin bowling aggressive and patient, smart and persistent, and came up with that wicket-taking delivery when it had deserted the other bowlers.

If Amla never looked like getting out, Harbhajan never looked like letting anyone settle. India had 98 overs to get seven wickets but 52.2 of them were a write-off: they were bowled to Amla, and this man was not going to get out. Not today. They did well, though, to create enough pressure in the remaining overs - despite two dropped catches - to finish off the match with 16 minutes remaining in the day's play.

India woke up to a bright and sunny day, but were thwarted in the first session by Amla and Ashwell Prince. For about two hours, Amla kept killing their hopes, Prince kept raising them only to not edge to hand. Finally, just when the draw started to become the favoured result, Harbhajan came back for his second spell of the day, from his favoured High Court End.

In the first spell, he had tried to get Prince lbw in a fashion similar to the one in the first innings, and failed. In his second he went over the stumps and made it difficult for Prince to judge which deliveries to leave. The leg line troubled Prince, and finally he jabbed at one outside off and lobbed it to mid-off.

Amit Mishra once again produced the special delivery out of nowhere, this time a googly to take out AB de Villiers in the penultimate over before the lunch break, the third time he had taken a wicket just before a break in the innings. de Villiers' was the big wicket because he was the one batsman capable of using his feet and hitting spinners off their length.

In the second spell, six overs each either side of lunch, Harbhajan looked menacing with almost every delivery. After lunch, Harbhajan went on to suggest JP Duminy might become his new Ponting. Offbreak, offbreak, slider. Duminy caught in front again. Dale Steyn didn't have a clue about deliveries spinning down the leg side, and kept getting beaten. Harbhajan smartly moved round the stumps, and trapped him too.

Thereafter Amla found an able partner in Parnell, who looked much more assured than Steyn, and helped by a dropped catch by Suresh Raina at a wide fourth slip, played out 24.2 overs. Amla manipulated the strike well: out of eight overs that Harbhajan bowled during that stand, Parnell got away by facing only 12 balls from the best bowler around.

A soft shot befitting a No. 9 arrived duly, after which Amla shielded Paul Harris for a while. From facing four balls of each over, he gradually let Harris face three each, and by the time Harris generated enough confidence in Amla, a soft shot befitting a No. 10 came by. Ishant got both the wickets, but 8.3 more overs had been negated.

That started the most exciting period of the match. Morkel batted solidly along with Amla, they both judged the leaves well, they both defended with soft hands, they both frustrated India more with every passing delivery. Towards the end, mind games began. Amla took a single late in a Mishra over to face Harbhajan in the next over, Dhoni removed Harbhajan and tried the part-time stuff from Sachin Tendulkar and Sehwag, and got Harbhajan to bowl at Morkel again.

Nothing gave. Amla seemed to have found a partner who was holding his nerve well. The desperation on Indian faces kept getting more and more apparent with every passing delivery. With 3.2 overs to go, Amla cut Tendulkar towards the boundary, took a single so as to face two more overs as opposed to one. Sehwag hoped it would reach the boundary as he chased, but slyly tried to kick it over when he saw it stop inches before the rope. Just to keep Morkel on strike. That's how much it mattered.

Amla duly played out the next over, Dhoni duly saved Harbhajan for the over after that. Harbhajan had six more balls left, from the High Court End. The first pitched middle, turned away. The second pitched leg, and broke towards off. The third was the killer slider, Morkel made his first mistake in 60 deliveries. Harbhajan roared, Amla's expression didn't change much.

New Delhi: A few of the players, who were lost to the rebel Indian Cricket League, will be making their comeback with the third edition of Indian Premier League, starting from Mar 12. All the eight franchisees of the IPL announced their squads for the tournament on Saturday. The IPL-3 will have as many as 60 games spread over a 45-day period.

Some of the players of the rebel league, who’ll be seen in the IPL, are Reetinder Singh Sodhi, S Sriram, Hemang Badani, Rohan Gavaskar, Ambati Rayudu and Shalabh Srivastava. In addition, a couple of new exciting international cricketers like Adrian Barath from West Indies and the Australia’s winning U-19 captain Mitchell Marsh will also be seen in action.

Here is the list of squads of all the franchises:

Deccan Chargers:
Adam Gilchrist (Captain), Andrew Symonds, Ryan Harris, Mitchell Marsh, Chaminda Vaas, Herschelle, Gibbs, Dwayne Smith, Kemar Roach, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Venugopal Rao, Arjun Yadav, Ravi Teja, T Suman, Anirudh Singh, Ashish Reddy, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Rahul Sharma, Bodapati Sumanth, Azhar Bilakhia, Monish Mishra

Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Anil Kumble (Captain), Rahul Dravid, Rabin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Akhil Balachandra, Shreevats Goswami, KP Apanna, S Sriram, A Mithun, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Boucher, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith, Dillon du Preez, Eoin Morgan, Cameron White

Rajasthan Royals:
Shane Warne (Captain), Graeme Smith, Shaun Tait, Dimitri Mascarnehas, Michael Lumb, Morne Morkel, Damien Martyn, Johan Botha, Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel, Kamran Khan, Naman Ojha, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Siddharth Trivedi, Shrikant Wagh, Abhishek Raut, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Faiz Fazal, Syed Ahmed Quadri, Amit Paunikar, Amit Singh

Mumbai Indians:
Sachin Tendulkar (Captain), Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Abhishek Nayar, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Chandan Madan, R Sathish, Ishan Malhotra, K Syed Sahabuddin, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rahul Shukla, Ali Murtaza, JP Duminy, Dwayne Bravo, Ryan McLaren, Graham Napier, Sanath Jayasuriya, Keiron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando

Chennai Super Kings:
MS Dhoni (Captain), Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, Shadab Jakati, Sudeep Tayagi, Manpreet Gony, Murali Vijay, R Ashwin, L Balaji, Hemang Badani, Ganpathy Chandrashekhar, Arun Karthik, Thilan Thushara, Michael Hussey, Albie Morkel, George Bailey, Justin Kemp, Thisara Perera, M Murlidaran, Matthew Hayden, Jacob Oram, Makhaya Ntini

Delhi Daredevils:
Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Dinesh Karthik, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra, Aavishkar Salvi, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Kedar Jadhav, Pradeep Sangwan, Joginder Singh, Umesh Yadav, Sarandeep Singh, Shashi Ranjan, Sarabjeet Ladda, TM Dilshan, David Warner, AB de Villiers, Wayne Parnell, Dirk Nannes, Moises Henriques, Farveez Maharoof, Andrew McDonald

Kings XI Punjab:
Kumar Sangakkara (Captain), Adrian Barath, Amanpreet Singh, Bipul Sharma, Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan, James Hopes, Karan Goel, Love Ablish, Mahela Jayawardene, Manvinder Bisla, Mohammad Kaif, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Ravi Bopara, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Shalabh Srivastva, Shaun Marsh, S Sreesanth, Tanmay Srivastava, Vikramjeet Malik, Yusuf Abdulla, Yuvraj Singh

Kolkata Knight Riders:
Sourav Ganguly (Captain), Varun Aaron, Iqbal Abdulla, Ajit Agarkar, Eklakh Ahmed, Ashoke Dinda, Rohan Gavaskar, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge, Harshad, Khadiwale, Charl, Langeveldt, Angelo Mathews, Brendon McCullum, Ajantha Mendis, Murali Kartik, Chirag Pathak, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha, Owais Shah, Ishant Sharma, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Ganpathi Vignesh

Just what is it with the Eden Gardens and dramatic collapses? Nearly a decade ago, in the match that few in this part of the world will ever forget, Australia were in complete command at tea on the opening day. Matthew Hayden had biffed his way to 97 in typically muscular fashion and the scoreboard showed 193 for 1. Four balls after the interval, he went to hit Harbhajan Singh against the turn and found Hemang Badani at deep midwicket. Six more wickets fell in the final session, with Harbhajan taking a hat-trick, as Australia closed on 291 for 8.

On the final day of the same game, Waugh's side plummeted from a relatively secure 161 for 3 at tea to 212 all out. That collapse changed the course of an enthralling series, but what we witnessed in 25 overs after tea today was an even more drastic reversal of fortune.

Alviro Petersen's debut innings had ended shortly before tea, but there'd have been few alarms in the dressing room with the score a rudely healthy 228 for 2. But two indiscreet shots, from the two men who were the foundation of the victory in Nagpur, and everything changed. Hashim Amla misjudged a pull off Zaheer Khan, and Jacques Kallis top-edged a slog-sweep off Harbhajan that VVS Laxman took brilliantly over his shoulder while running towards fine leg.

"When you looked at it at tea, we were in trouble," said Gary Kirsten, India's coach. "Let's be honest about that. All credit to the bowlers for turning it around. They showed tremendous resilience. They have bowled pretty well this series without the rewards. When you're picking four bowlers every Test, it's an enormous workload on them. We've got to give them credit for the way they run in Test after Test. This is our fourth on the trot."

Perhaps the key passage of play had come just before the tea break, when Ishant Sharma gave a glimpse of what he can do when the rhythm is right. He went wicketless in a four-over spell that cost 12 runs, but Amla, who had eased to a hundred with few alarms, suddenly appeared troubled. Zaheer, who replaced Ishant, continued the good work, putting together an outstanding spell either side of the interval - 6-3-11-2.

"We've felt that he's just on the edge of doing some good stuff again," said Kirsten of Ishant's spell. "We know that he's an exceptionally talented bowler and he's just coming back to some really nice form. He bowled a nice aggressive spell. He wanted to get his pace up closer to the 140s where he wants to be. He was letting the ball go beautifully today. It was a very important spell because more than getting wickets, it set the tone for what we wanted to achieve after tea."

Suddenly, the same attack that had looked largely innocuous for the first two sessions found its bite. More importantly, chances were grabbed, and the stumps hit to catch the dangerous AB de Villiers out of his ground. "If you're not getting wickets because the ball's doing a bit, you've got to build pressure," said Kirsten. "And there's no better way of building pressure than getting a few wickets.

"It happened to us in the first Test. We were going nicely with the bat, we lost a wicket and pressure was created. We did that in this game. We mustn't always be looking for assistance to get wickets. When you can create pressure by doing some creative things on the field, which I thought we did today, batsmen play very differently."


For two sessions, with both spinners seemingly incapable of bowling a maiden, the decision to go in with two slow bowlers and leave Sreesanth out had looked decidedly dubious. Amit Mishra was unlucky with a couple of leg-before shouts, and Harbhajan far from amused after Laxman dropped a straightforward chance at slip when Amla had made just 60. But there were too many four balls, and too little pressure, especially with a debutant at the crease.

"We'd always like to have a third seamer, and two spinners," said Kirsten, explaining the omission of Sreesanth. "But the balance of our team doesn't work that way. We either have to opt for three seamers and one spinner or two and two. We felt that an extra spinner on this wicket is going to be important."

And after the criticism that Harbhajan Singh has received in recent times, Kirsten was understandably delighted with his efforts after tea, with both Ashwell Prince and JP Duminy quickly joining Kallis in the pavilion in a passage of play that utterly changed the complexion of the game. "I thought Harbhajan bowled really well in the last game, and I thought the South Africans played him very well," he said. "Even though he was in good rhythm, he needed to come up with ways to get wickets. I've been very confident that his rhythm has got better and better as the series has gone along. When the confidence is going and the rhythm's good, he's going to get wickets."

The [Dale] Steyn menace looms large on day two, but Kirsten was quietly confident that there was nothing in the conditions to worry his batsmen. "We didn't feel it took too much turn," he said. "We didn't feel that it offered that much assistance to the seamers. There's a long way to go in the Test, but it looks a fairly good wicket at the moment. There was a lot less grass on the wicket today than there was yesterday, otherwise we would have gone for three seamers."

There was little encouragement in the Nagpur pitch either, but Steyn still ended up with a 10-wicket haul. It's advantage India for the moment, but on a pitch where there's been enough bounce for those willing to hit the deck hard, it would be foolhardy in the extreme to discount South Africa. Back in 2001, India were dismissed for 171 after Waugh had stretched Australia's innings to 445 all out. If Monday sees that kind of drama, the roof might just come off a stadium that's already half rubble.