By: BCCI
The sun was beating hard in Chennai and the ice boxes were being put to full use as the players took their turns at the nets in the build-up to the fourth ODI. India are 1-2 down in the series and are in a “must win” scenario. If India lose the plot here, the series will be out of their grasp.
Not surprisingly, the team realises the importance of this game. “We are in a tricky situation and we have to win the next game to be in the series,” said Harbhajan Singh.
“We have the team that can turn things around. The team will be going all-out to win the game tomorrow and from there onwards hopefully we will put up another good performance.”
Harbhajan Singh also acknowledged the fact India’s 18-run loss in the third ODI in Rajkot after being in a position of advantage wasn’t the best of on-field performances. But the spinner was hopeful that the team would put up a better show and look for a winning stride starting from Chennai.
“We didn’t play as well as we should have in the previous game when the game was on our side. But things will change and hopefully it will change from tomorrow. I have always enjoyed bowling here (Chennai) and this is one place where spinners come and enjoy bowling. India has won a lot of games here and hopefully Chennai will give us that luck which is required.”
With the pitch in Chennai traditionally known to aid spinners, Harbhajan Singh expected the spinning unit to come good. India have good variety in the spin department and the off-spinner insisted that they would look to go all-out in search for wickets.
“With our spinners we are looking to put pressure on their batsmen and not giving them easy singles. It is fine if they are looking to go over the top. We want to take wickets as a spinning unit. At any point of time we want to attack and have a lot of catching fielders in place. In that process you will go for boundaries here and there but at the same time if you pick up a wicket you can always control the game. That is our agenda.”
With three ODIs done, the new powerplay rules have become quite a talking point. India have failed to accelerate the run-scoring at the death and getting runs with an extra fielder manning the boundary has become difficult. Bowlers in turn have found some confidence in defending totals and believe the contest is a lot more even now between the bat and ball.
Harbhajan felt, India needed to get smarter during that phase of the game. “The rule brings a lot of balance between bat and ball. With the previous rule, the batsmen always had the advantage and would score a lot of runs in the end. But I have been playing under this new rule (five fielders outside the circle) all my life and batsmen have scored runs in the past. We just need to be smarter,” he said.
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