Gibbs blames one-day habit for soft dismissal

South Africa opener Herschelle Gibbs blamed a bad habit picked up in limited overs cricket for his dismissal soon after reaching a century in the first Test against India on Sunday.

Gibbs scored 107 on the second day before he drove a half volley from paceman Javagal Srinath straight into the hands of Zaheer Khan at mid-off.

"I was very disappointed to get out like that," Gibbs said. "But I was thinking that I had to hit every half volley that I faced today."

"Normally in the one-day series (against India and Kenya) over the past month I've been wanting to hit them over the top but it's probably just a bad habit that I've picked up. I think a few more innings in the Test series will get rid of that mistake."

Gibbs said although it was too early to suggest a total that South Africa would be aiming at to put the Indians under serious pressure when they batted for a second time, there was enough in the pitch to provide encouragement for the South African bowlers.

"It's very early to say at this stage but the wicket is a lot quicker now and the scoring rate is quite quick at the moment. We'd obviously like to get as many as we can and go past them and put them under pressure.

"There are a few cracks opening up, especially for the right handers at the far end, which could come into play as the match goes on. They've got quite a few right handers in their side and we'll need to put as much pressure as we can on them," Gibbs said.

At the start of the day, South Africa took India's remaining three first innings wickets in 5.1 overs, and Gibbs said the bowlers were determined to make up for their poor showing on the first day when the touring team scored 372 for seven.

"I think the guys realised that they didn't play very well. As a batter, I find it hard (to understand how) they can come into a Test series and not know the right length to bowl.

"But they had a week off and they found out that they didn't bowl as well as they would have liked to. Corrie van Zyl, the assistant coach came out this morning and just reminded some of the bowlers what they should be doing and they went out there and turned it on a bit," he said.

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Mail Cricket Editor