After a lukewarm beginning in the English county season for Surrey, Harbhajan Singh asserted his dominance with a haul of 6 for 36 in the Frizzell County Championship match against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl on Thursday. The Indian off-spinner's performance helped his team bowl out Hampshire for 146 in the first innings on the second day of the match.
Beginning the demolition with the wicket of John Crawley (1), Harbhajan proceeded to rock the middle-order with four consecutive scalps. He was also able to get the better of rival spinner and Hampshire captain Shane Warne. Harbhajan bowled the Australian for three.
The Indian also chipped in with the bat during Surrey's first innings. Resuming on six on Thursday morning, Harbhajan scored a quickfire 25 from 16 balls that included four fours and one six. Surrey ended their innings on 361 and were 215 runs at the end of day two.
India's left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan, who suffered a shoulder injury last week, turned on an indifferent performance for Middlesex. He bowled without success, conceding 66 runs in 19 overs against Glamorgan.
Sourav Ganguly did not even need to bat for Glamorgan as the county side piled on 584 for 3 declared on the second day at John Walker's Ground, Southgate. Daniel Cherry hit a massive 226 off 349 balls, while David Hemp and Jonathan Hughes also plundered centuries against the hapless bowling attack.
Middlesex finished the day on 96 for one.
The most successful Indian in the English county season though has been Dinesh Mongia.
Mongia had another good outing as he scored a fluent 66 to give respectability to Leicestershire's first innings score against Worcestershire in a Frizzell County Championship Division two match on Thursday.
Riding on the Indian batsman's knock, which was the only half-century in the innings, the home side made 225 all out at Leicester. Mongia played an attacking innings and hit 13 fours during his 82-ball effort to take his team's score to 200 before the side suffered a slump, losing the last six wickets for a further 25 runs.
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