The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Optimism and self-belief prevail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 26, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Optimism and self-belief prevail

By K.C. Vijaya Kumar

BANGALORE, MARCH 25. Confidence was the recurring theme as the day's heroes — Younis Khan and Harbhajan Singh — met the press here on Friday evening. Younis Khan, fresh from his 267, and Harbhajan Singh, with the 16th five-wicket haul in his kitty, spoke at length about optimism and self-belief.

The ICC may be having a fresh look at Harbhajan Singh's `doosra' but the off-spinner stated that he was not worried. "I was confident. You need self-belief and the belief of my teammates helped. I never thought about the ICC and all that because our Board is there to take care of such matters. I bowled the doosra, the doosra has been cleared and I never held back," Harbhajan said besides stating that the wicket of Abdul Razzaq through a tossed up delivery was special.

Younis Khan meanwhile emphasised that there were no negative thoughts in his mind despite low scores in the first Test at Mohali. "I always play my natural game and I play for my team. People will talk a lot but I never let that affect me. No negative stuff for me. Today I never thought about my 300 and all I wanted was to score some quick runs for my team," he said.

On tactics employed to play Anil Kumble and about the pitch, Younis said, "I played Kumble like an in-swing bowler. The pitch has a few cracks and if luck is on our side we should win." Earlier Harbhajan declared that there was not much spin in the wicket though the bounce was better on the second day.

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