The rub of the green will decide the one day series

I must honestly confess that this is one of the best Test series I've watched. The manner in which the Indians fought back was unbelievable. I must say that we played excellent cricket. At Chennai after having won the toss and decided to bat again, Australia's score of 391 was not good enough to put pressure on the Indian batting. Steve Waugh's handled the ball dismissal was the turning point. He was determined to lead the side through, the partnership with Matthew Hayden was going well, but his dismissal changed the course of the game.

Harbhajan Singh maintained a very high standard of bowling throughout. Normally, at Test level at least, you expect all the bowlers to look like taking a wicket but in the present context, Harbhajan apart, only Sachin Tendulkar showed the ability of creating a spot of trouble. The gameplan of the Australians to attack helped on the first day at Chennai when they piled up 326 runs. They would have continued in the same vein had Steve Waugh not been dismissed at an inopportune moment and in an unusual fashion. If that hadn't happened, I'm sure Harbhajan wouldn't have been allowed to dominate. That was a blessing in disguise as far as the Indians were concerned. The rest of the batsmen were not too confident of facing Harbhajan because they were simply unable to read him.

The Aussies are tremendous pullers and cutters. Now there were many balls which Harbhajan bowled on leg and middle and just short of a length, but instead of playing the pull, they were just pushing the ball to short square leg. That's where I was a little foxed at the approach of the Australian batsmen. Harbhajan was bowling pretty fast, somewhere around 90 km per hour. Except for Ricky Ponting who was beaten by the straighter one rather than in flight, not even one wicket he got was clean bowled between bat and pad. That's why I feel he was pushing the ball faster than normal. On a plumb wicket, he has to definitely cultivate the habit of looping the ball and deceiving the batsman in the air as well. As the series progressed you could compare notes from Chennai with the Mumbai Test. There Sourav Ganguly was a captain who was just feeling his way around in the Test arena. But in Chennai he showed a lot of imagination and understood what sort of field placement was required for Harbhajan.

The total failure of Shane Warne on whom the Australians depended a lot to get a few wickets at Kolkata contributed to their downfall. If he'd done it there, the series would have been over then itself. I have watched Warne on many occasions, live as well. Earlier, his arm was coming up a lot higher, he had a flipper which he squeezed out with his middle finger and thumb, a googly and top spinner. He had a lovely loop to deceive batsmen and drag them out of the crease. Here all of those were missing. First of all he had an absolutely round arm and was not turning the ball to that extent. In fact Sachin Tendulkar was turning the ball more than Warne in Kolkata, bowling with a high action, loop and bounce. Here Warne was alowing Rahul Dravid and Laxman to step out and drive balls that were squatting on the wicket. That's why he allowed them to dominate.

History says that most touring fast bowlers have been very successful on Indian wickets. They are physically very strong; you saw Gillespie and McGrath getting that extra bounce because of their physical strength. Our fast bowlers can't get that sort of weight behind the ball because they're not strong enough. If you see the records, when touring fast bowlers play five Tests, they usually get 25 wickets and when they play three Tests, they get 15-18 wickets. I would say that if overseas teams don't have spin bowlers of Indian standard, the only way is to attack India with pace.

In the one-dayers, a little bit of luck is required. Both the sides are capable of scoring 250 plus, so it looks like being a very tall scoring series. If Harbhajan is playing, by the time he comes on, the first 15 overs will be up and the fielders will be spread out, so he cannot attack which is a psychological disadvantage. Unless he can turn the ball square, his success rate will not be as high as in the Tests. I feel the team which has the little rub of the green on their side will be the winners.