Harbhajan hopes for a turnaround

The most awaited and prestigious third and last Twenty20 worldwide match between India and South Africa has been called off due to wet outfield. To have that happening, I don’t think it’s nice for cricket. I am batting quite well since Sri Lanka, and have been talking a lot with (batting coach) Sanjay Bangar and we felt I am hitting the ball a lot better than I ever have.

“This is exactly the start we needed for our first Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela icon tour and this T20 series win positions us well for the upcoming ODI and Test matches”, commented CSA Chief Executive, Haroon Lorgat.

Kolkata: As much as Eden Gardens belongs to VVS Laxman for his epic 281 against Australia in that historic Test, it is also Harbhajan Singh’s spiritual home for the 13 wickets that he took in that particular match including a hat-trick. “It has been a huge confidence booster”.

The victory, however, was setup by a rampaging performance in the field from the South Africans.

When asked about De Villiers’ absence, teammate David Miller said: “It was an optional practice today”. Even the way the game was played towards the end, it lost its intensity because obviously India thought that we have already won as we needed only 20 runs. We will see tomorrow.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni did look aggressive while batting, stepping down the tracks time and again to the likes of left-arm spinner Axar Patel and other club level tweakers. I am not sure how the logistics work on practice scheduling. Pathetic, I tell you. Start time is 7:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. GMT). Later, another BCCI tweet fled indicating, there would be another examination which will be made at 8.30 pm. But to fair, it has been the same to both teams.

“We should not read too much into it”. Depending on that I play a bit slow initially.

“It makes a massive difference”. We came here with a lot of expectations to do well. “But saying that its new competition, India will be fresh, they will like to prove a point in the first game”, said du Plessis.

TV commentators were not so forgiving with former South African captain writing on Twitter: “Really sad and disappointing behaviour from fans in Cuttack tonight!” The only difference here is the bounce in the wickets. We didn’t play well and at times you get reaction like these. The longer the format, the more the spin comes into play.

“It is a special ground, with a lot of history, I always try and do good here in Kolkata”, added Miller.