'I Always Believe In Bowling Quick'

Having finally established himself as the pacespearhead of the Indian team in the absence of veteran Javagal Srinath, ZaheerKhan is all geared to rattle the opposition in the deciding Test against Englandby some real quick bowling.

Zaheer bowled his quickest in the Headlingley Testwhich India went on to win by an innings and 46 runs and though his match haulof three wickets did not do justice to the way he bowled, he impressed with his sheer pace and length.

"I've always believed in bowling quick and can getquicker over a period of time," Zaheer said while revealing it was captainSaurav Ganguly who had asked him to bowl faster in short spells.

"Saurav told me he was going to use me in shortspells and wanted me to go flat out," said Zaheer who touched over 90mph(150 kmph plus) on the last day of the Test.

Zaheer also greatly benefitted from a piece of advicefrom Javagal Srinath on a recent tour to the West Indies where the Karnatakaspeedster shared his know-how of English wickets.

"Srinath said the key to bowling in theseconditions is to pitch the ball up, hit the right length and allow the ball toswing.

"Fortunately, this is the kind of stuff I bowlmost of the time, pitching it up, reverse swinging and bowling yorkers... StillI need to work constantly on it and it is working," Zaheer said.

But he is not the only left-arm paceman in the team and has competition inAshish Nehra.

Zaheer downplayed it though. "Our bowling style isdifferent. Mine is to hit the deck and extract pace from the pitch. Ashishrelies more on swing. So it helps us to bowl in tandem."

Zaheer has had trouble with umpires when he comes from over the wicket and appears to run on tothe pitch in his follow through.

"Honestly, the warnings by umpires never affectme. I know my strengths and how to deal with it. Even if I come close to thewicket and tread on it, I know how to adjust to it." Zaheer says he comescloser to the wicket in order to present a batsman with the difficulty of anglesin his deliveries.

Much as Zaheer has earned his reputation as a paceman,two of his most notable achievements on this tour have come with the bat -- firstgiving a helping hand to Mohammad Kaif in India's memorable triumph in theNatWest trophy final and then batting in tandem with the 17-year-old ParthivPatel to save the second Test at Trent Bridge for India.

"NatWest final is a good memory. There were a lotof nerves. The pressure was on and we needed 13 runs to win. I just knew I hadto keep my end safe and give strike to Kaif who was playing exceptionallywell.

"Once Kaif managed a boundary in the second last over, only two runswere required from the final over. I knew I have had to hold my nerves and tworuns were definitely going to come. I just needed to keep my calm," hesaid.

PTI