The Silent Achiever

Paul Harris seems to be one of those determined performers who go about their game quietly. Nothing much is ever said or written about him or his left arm orthodox spin, and when there are talks about the South African bowling attack, his name is conspicuously absent. If you saw him bowling for the first time, you would probably see no reason why it should be any different. He is tall, doesn’t loop the ball in the air like the traditional Asian spinners, and neither does he get prodigious turn. Isn’t he just a defensive bowling solution for a nation that has no quality spinners, one would argue. Perhaps that is why he was brought into the team. Today, though, two seasons later you might have seen him bowl twenty overs on the first day at Kingsmead, a few of those with a forward short-leg, a silly point and a slip.

Defensive bowlers are just not given so many overs or that kind of a field on the first day of a test match in South Africa. Ashley Giles never got it; Nicky Boje never got it, and probably neither did the likes of Harbhajan Singh (who would murder anyone who called him a defensive spinner). The first two out of these three would never even have dreamt that their captain would delay taking the new ball because they had to continue their spells. Yet, today one saw Paul Harris bowling the 81st over with the old ball. And no, it was not because the ball was reverse swinging.

A Successful Day

Paul Harris has got 62 wickets in 23 matches at a decent average between 33 and 34. These figures look even better if one considers that a lot of these wickets have come in conditions that don’t really assist spinners. Add to that the fact that he is very economical and generally concedes under three runs an over, even on days like today when his more illustrious counterparts are being swatted all over the park. In fact, today was especially productive for him. He accounted for Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, both against the run of play, and gave South Africa a sniff. Ponting had chipped him over mid-off for two just the ball before he got him out. To his credit, Harris bowled it full and slow again, almost daring Ponting. This one turned a bit more and looped up to mid-off as Ponting went for the same shot.

The ball to Clarke was more reminiscent of a wily spinner of the olden days. Harris came wide of the crease to change the angle, and pitched one on middle and leg at just the length that had Clarke confused about whether to play forward or back. He got stuck on his crease, the ball spun past his bat and crashed into the stumps. Harris’ celebration was well deserved. In the hours leading up to the game there was talk about whether to drop him for Albie Morkel, yet in these two wickets and over the course of the day he has shown just why he should be regarded as integral a component of the recent South African success as any other, and why his smart captain Greame Smith has placed so much trust in him.

Deconstructing Harris

While Harris doesn’t have the great variety in flight and ability to get turn of the wicket that make a spinner a connoisseur’s delight, he has good height and excellent control. He constantly puts the ball in areas where the batsmen have to take that extra bit of risk if they want to play an aggressive shot. He also keeps varying the pace at which he bowls, the angles from which he delivers the ball, and he has shown more than once that he is willing to flight it if there is any assistance on offer. All in all, he has taken his role in the team more seriously than perhaps anyone had imagined.

When a bowler can tell his captain, ‘you need some control in a hard time, you can trust me,’ and ‘you need that elusive wicket, you can trust me,’ one knows that he is more than just a marginal asset. The misfortune, however, for this top-class ‘control and pressurize’ bowler is that recognition will probably never follow.