What a difference a few days and a solitary change in the team can make. India's bowling, beyond abysmal at Johannesburg last Friday, was revitalised by the inclusion of Harbhajan Singh at the Supersport Park. The pace attack at the Wanderers, with Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad as sharp as a ball of wool, was braai and Castle lager to the South Africans. The decision to go back to spin at Centurion was an inspired one and despite a wobble at the end, India won quite comfortably.

Ajit Agarkar and Srinath may have made the initial breakthrough but it was Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, bowling in tandem, who decimated the South African batting.

Kumble, well below par in Johannesburg, was back to something like his menacing best today. Neil McKenzie was putty in his hands the moment he arrived at the crease. As he flailed about without a clue, you knew the sweep shot was just around the corner. That seems to be the sole answer to spin for many of South Africa's batsmen. McKenzie's out-of-touch innings ended with an inside edge that crashed into the stumps. Kumble followed that up with a delivery that would have done Shane Warne proud. Tossed up and wide of the stumps, it drew Jonty Rhodes to it like a magnet. The merest hint of leg spin and the cover-drive became a thick outside edge, safely taken by Rahul Dravid at slip.

After that, Harbhajan -- champing at the bit after missing the opening game -- was let loose on the South Africans. Until then, Jacques Kallis had looked a class apart, so the way Harbhajan outfoxed him brought a big smile to many an Indian face. Teased by the flight, Kallis came down the track, watched the ball spin away from him and then walked straight off. Deep Dasgupta did his duty behind the stumps.

That exposed the lower order to India's spinners. One of the fallouts of South Africa's recent winning spree has been the lack of time in the middle for most of their lower order. It showed today as most of them displayed poor technique against spin and a general rustiness that no amount of net practice can remove. Both Nicky Boje and Shaun Pollock were undone playing across the line. The South Africans are supposed to have watched tapes of Harbhajan bowling against Australia. If they did, they can't have paid much attention.

Lance Klusener and Mark Boucher put together a sizeable partnership at the end but it only delayed the inevitable. The damage had been done by India's spin twins much earlier. The inept manner in which South Africa handled them, and Virender Sehwag at the end, gives Ganguly plenty of reason to smile.

Dileep Premachandran is a staff writer with Wisden.com India.

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