Harbhajan Singh reveals how he succeeded in getting the better of Ricky Ponting

Harbhajan Singh has revealed how he managed to get the better of Australia's two-time World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting on the cricket field. He said that he started dominating Ponting ever since the 2001 home Test series against Steve Waugh & Co. which the Sourav Ganguly-led side went on to win 2-1 after having been outplayed in the first Test.  

The only instance where the champion batsman got the off-spinner's number was during the 2003 World Cup final between India and Australia where he could do nothing wrong as he went and on to score an unbeaten 140 as the Men In Blue were batted out of the contest.

'He was not focusing': Harbhajan Singh

“After that when the 2001 series happened it felt like he was not playing the ball but getting out just by watching my face. He was not focusing on the ball at all, if he was focusing on the ball I don’t think anyone would get out so many times and that too so easily,” said Harbhajan Singh while interacting on the Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'.

“First time I dismissed Ricky Ponting was in Sharjah. It was an ODI match and I got him stumped. After dismissing him, I said something to him that I didn’t know much about. My English wasn’t too good at that time, I had heard that word from a lot of people, so I also said that,” the 2011 World Cup winner added.

“Because of that, I got banned from the next match. But my memory is that when he got out and I signalled him to go out, he came towards me with his bat as though he was going to hit me. So, I got a bit scared if he would really hit me,” the veteran offie further added.

A quick recap of the 2001 Kolkata Test

India had lost the opening Test in Mumbai before heading into the second Test match in Kolkata. The hosts seemed to be down and out of the contest after they were bundled out for 171 in reply to Australia's 445 after which the then skipper Steve Waugh enforced the follow-on which turned out to be spot-on as the Sourav Ganguly-led side were reduced to 232/4.  However, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had other ideas.

The 376-run stand between VVS Laxman (281) and Rahul Dravid (180) took India to 657-7. While Australia were left with a target of 384 runs for victory, they folded for just 212 on the final day. Harbhajan Singh himself was the wrecker-in-chief with the ball as he picked up figures of 7-123 and 6-73 in the match. While the Sourav Ganguly-led side won the second Test to level the series at 1-1, they also won the thrilling affair in Chennai a week later to claim the series 2-1.

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