Ball turned but not unplayable: Harbhajan Singh
After taking Punjab to the Ranji Trophy knockouts with a seven-star performance against Tamil Nadu, Harbhajan Singh defended the Dindigul pitch, saying he never thought it was unplayable. The Punjab captain rather cited poor application from the batters. “No, it wasn’t a bad pitch. How did we score runs then? Even our lower-order contributed. I would say we bowled very well and never allowed them a breathing space. We, as a team, played very well. We showed determination,” Harbhajan said.
He, however, admitted that the pitch assisted spinners. “The ball did turn, yes. But the pitch was not unplayable. Far from it… Application was the need of the hour, and I must say we applied ourselves very well. At the end of the day, we were the touring team.”
The off-spinner had voiced concern over the proliferation of seamer-friendly pitches in domestic cricket last season. Spinners are making merry this time around on square turners. So how does he look at it , when things have moved from one extreme to the other; once again at the expense of a fair contest.
“See, we played (against Uttar Pradesh) in Kanpur on a green-top. We played against Baroda on a seaming wicket and won. This pitch assisted the spinners, but I won’t say the balance has tilted completely.”
