England's Harmison has South Africa on the run
Steve Harmison responded to a change of captain and a different approach to his role in the team and inspired England's best bowling performance of the summer in the final npower Test.
The 29-year-old fast bowler has infuriated nearly every England captain he has played for with his knack of mixing brilliant spells with equally wayward performances.
Nasser Hussain attempted encouragement, while Michael Vaughan managed to inspire the most consistent cricket of Harmison's Test career before finally losing faith and dropping him earlier this year for a lacklustre display against New Zealand in Hamilton.
But newly-installed captain Kevin Pietersen gained instant rewards simply by talking Harmison up in the build-up to their final Test of the summer at The Oval - and trusting him with the new ball for the first time since last summer.
It was a simple formula for handling Harmison, but brilliantly effective on the first big day for England's 78th Test captain with the Durham spearhead claiming two for 49 to inspire a South African collapse to 194 all out.
England progressed to 49 for one by the close of the first day with Pietersen proclaiming his first day in charge a success.
The full article contains 208 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
07 August 2008 9:59 PM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Northampton
