Cricekt: Short ball backfires on NZ as Indian tail wags furiously

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A policy of bowling short at the Indian tail backfired on New Zealand at the Basin Reserve yesterday.

In the final session, the fast-medium men persistently banged the ball in short and it cost them as Harbhajan Singh, with 60, Zaheer Khan a rapid 33, and last pair Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel pushed India up to 375 for nine at stumps by going on the offensive.

"Maybe, if we reflect on it," New Zealand allrounder James Franklin admitted last night.

"The short ball always tends to work well against tails and we probably didn't bowl enough good stuff of that.

"I'm sure the guys will reflect tonight on what they did in that last hour and come back hard and get that last wicket quickly tomorrow."

Harbhajan, whose seventh test half century included a variety of exotic shots, was a key factor in India getting out of a hole at 204 for six.

He certainly thought New Zealand's bowlers got it wrong.

"To me I think they did," he said. "On this kind of wicket it is easy to score runs when the ball is short and they did bowl too short to me."

Franklin felt India had got away on New Zealand in the last session.

"We probably let it slip 50 to 60 runs too many there. But again they got away with a few lucky shots and the ball didn't quite go to hand. Sometimes that's the way it can be with the tail," he said.

"The tail wagged. Probably 320, 330 would be a fairer reflection on the day for us but Harbhajan played his luck and got away with it and so did Zaheer."

Harbhajan, one of world cricket's premier spin bowlers, enjoyed his batting yesterday, quipping that "I am very upset I did not get a century".

"180-odd runs in the last session, it was fantastic. The ball is doing a bit if you pitch it in the right areas. We just need to be patient when we come to bowl and if we do we will get the results."