Harbhajan’s all-round show

But,even by his extravagant standards,there are times when there is an extra step in his perennially bouncy stride. Sunday was one of those days. Donning a Mumbai Indians jersey,Harbhajan produced an exhilarating all-round show to fashion a comprehensive 41-run win for his team against the Deccan Chargers at the DY Patil Stadium.

When he walked out to bat in the 17th over of the innings,the Mumbai Indians were stuttering at 119 for seven,after captain Sachin Tendulkar had scored what seems these days like a customary half-century from him — his third on the trot in IPL III.

The remainder of the innings belonged solely to Harbhajan as he smashed 49 off just 18 deliveries and put together an astonishing 53 run-partnership off the last 20 balls with Ryan McLaren (2).

Settling scores

Harbhajan first seemed to settle old scores with long-time nemesis Andrew Symonds,hitting him for a six and a four off consecutive deliveries.

Kemar Roach may be considered the fastest bowler in world cricket at the moment and,playing his first IPL game,the Barbadian did display glimpses of his express pace —hitting Shikhar Dhawan on the gloves and halting play for a while.

But his intimidating pace proved to be scant bother for Harbhajan,who scored three fours and a mighty six over mid-wicket while taking 19 runs off the West Indian paceman.

Harbhajan,who later revealed that he had used Tendulkar’s bat during the innings,hit eight fours and two sixes to propel Mumbai’s score to a competitive 172 for seven.

Such was the momentum he had built that it almost seemed inevitable that Tendulkar would throw the ball to Harbhajan as captain Adam Gilchrist walked out to open the Deccan Chargers’ innings. And the off-spinner delivered straight away,getting rid off the former Australian opener,caught brilliantly by Tendulkar at slip. The defending IPL champions never looked in the hunt from that point onwards.

Though his spell was discontinued after this solitary over,the off-spinner returned to get rid of Tirumalsetti Suman,handing him a fiery send-off,and Jaskaran Singh to finish with figures of three for 31. So pumped up was Harbhajan that he even managed to lift the colossal figure of Kieron Pollard off his feet,after the West Indian all-rounder dismissed Venugopal Rao.

In the end,as the rest of his team mates headed towards the changing rooms to rejoice their third successive win and an extended stay at the top of the table,Harbhajan spent an extra minute to applaud that section of the crowd where he hit most of his boundaries earlier in the evening. After the kind of day he had had,it seemed justified that he was the last one to leave the ground.