Wisden 20:20
Keeping Lara in check
S Rajesh
Brian Lara v Harbhajan Singh: this was a battle that many were looking forward to eagerly. Lara had demolished Muttiah Muralitharan in the three-Test series in Sri Lanka last year, but Harbhajan did remarkably well in his 31-ball duel against Lara.
Lara scored 18 runs against him - a strike-rate of 58% compared to an overall innings strike-rate of 67% - and wasn’t entirely comfortable. He survived a couple of confident shouts for lbw and caught-behind, and was in control of his shots only 74% of the time. That means, once every four balls against Harbhajan, he played and missed, was rapped on the pads, or hit a stroke he wasn’t in control of. The in-control percentage over his entire innings was 79.5.
As he had done against Murali, Lara employed the sweep to try and unsettle Harbhajan, playing the stroke eight times, but it brought him only six runs. All his runs against Harbhajan came behind or square of the wicket - testimony to the fact that Lara never felt confident enough to drive through the line. He didn’t come down the pitch even once today.
The key to Harbhajan’s bowling against Lara was his exceptional control over length: 29 balls were on a good length, an incredible 93.5%. Round one to Harbhajan, then, but there should be many more intriguing battles between the two in the Tests ahead.
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