This is how Simon Harmer’s career was saved. (Photo- PTI)
Team India surrendered against South Africa in the Kolkata Test on the third day itself, where the Indian team had to face defeat by 30 runs. Team India failed to achieve the target of 124 runs in the last innings. At the same time, in the first innings, she too was bundled out for 189 runs. Simon Harmer was the hero of South Africa’s historic victory. Simon Harmer bowled brilliantly in this match and took a total of 8 wickets.
Indian batsmen surrender before harmer
Simon Harmer was the most successful bowler of this match. He took 4-4 wickets in both the innings. During this, Indian batsmen were seen struggling in front of Simon Harmer on the Kolkata pitch which was helpful to the spinners. Harmer gave only 30 runs in 15.2 overs in the first innings and made Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Dhruv Jurel his victims. At the same time, in the second innings, he bowled 14 overs, during which he gave away 20 runs and showed the way to the pavilion to Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.
Let us tell you, Simon Harmer returned to India to play a Test match after almost 10 years and this moment was very memorable for him. The last visit to India in 2015 had proved to be a nightmare for him. In fact, after the India tour in 2015, Simon Harmer was dropped from the South African team. After this he could not return to the team for almost 7 years. During this period, he worked a lot on himself and returned as a big match winner. In which Mumbai’s MCA Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana had an important contribution.
Sachin Tendulkar spent those 10 days in the gymkhana.
Actually, after being dropped from the international team in 2015, Simon Harmer took a big decision. He had come to India from South Africa and spent about ten days in MCA Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana. During this time, he worked on his bowling with Umesh Patwal, whom he also considers as his guru. Simon first met Umesh during a spin camp of Cricket South Africa in India. At that time Umesh Patwal was the Director of Cricket at Global Cricket School. CSA had organized spin camps in collaboration with Global Cricket School.
Umesh Patwal changed the way of bowling
In these 10 days, Umesh turned Simon’s world upside down. Umesh first taught Simon how to hold the ball properly. Before this he had never used his thumb while catching the ball. Umesh wanted him to use his thumb. Throughout his career, Simon worked with the belief that if he wanted to spin or get more revs on the ball, he had to grip the ball more tightly. Apart from making changes in his awareness of how to catch and release the ball, he also worked on his run-up, which proved to be very beneficial for Simon.
Left South Africa in 2017
Simon Harmer had taken another big decision after working on his bowling. He signed Kolpak deal in England in the year 2017. Signing a Kolpak deal means a player leaving international cricket and signing with a European county (such as an English county) so that he is not counted as an overseas player and does not require an overseas player slot. However, in the year 2022, he once again returned to the South African national team. Recently, he was also a part of the team on Pakistan tour, where he showed amazing performance.
Simon Harmer has played 13 matches for South Africa so far. During this period he has taken 60 wickets at an average of 23.38. At the same time, he has taken 18 wickets in just 3 Test matches against India, which is the record of taking the most wickets by any South African spin bowler in the first 3 matches against India.