Wednesday, February 10, 2010

India fade away after day-long flicker

When Dale Steyn runs through a line-up, as he did during India’s first innings, batsmen don’t mind admitting that they’d been done in by an unstoppable force. When it’s the innocuous (for want of a less offensive adjective) left-arm spin of Paul Harris that’s making the biggest dents, however, their emotions should — and probably do — swing between acute embarrassment and outright disbelief.

Harris picked up three crucial wickets on Tuesday, and was denied a fourth by the umpire, as South Africa beat India by an innings and six runs at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, to take a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series and a giant step towards the world No 1 ranking. The defeat was Dhoni’s first as captain, India’s first in a year-and-a-half, and their first at home since they had gone down to the same opponents in Ahmedabad two years ago.

Harris’s greatest strength is the fact that he knows his limitations and works within them — something that shows in the mindgames he plays. Instead of talking himself up ahead of tours, he likes to play things down, having referred to himself in the past as both “useless” and “fifth grade”.

Source : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-fade-away-after-daylong-flicker/577560/

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