Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh’s hat-trick during the 2001 Test series against Australia in Kolkata was among the trending topic on social media last week, as many Aussie fans and batting great Mark Waugh raised questions over some of the umpiring decisions.
But Harbhajan feels Australians find the defeat in the Eden Gardens Test hard to digest and he also termed them as 'bad losers'.
Harbhajan had dismissed Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, and Shane Warne on consecutive deliveries and became the first Indian to claim a hat-trick in the longest format.
The Turbanator, who took seven wickets in the first innings, returned with the figures of 6/73 to help India in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
"That's Australia for you. When they bowl, they feel everything is out. When they are facing it, they feel they are not out. They were not really happy about most of the decision. But this is how the game goes. We may talk about 2008, the Sydney Test, we had a lot of things that went not in our favour. A lot of people talk about that Test as well,” Harbhajan said an Instagram live chat on R Ashwin's #ReminiscewithAsh show.
"These things happen in the field. We have to accept it as a player. We don't need to keep on crying about it. We now see some people say on Twitter that Gilchrist was not out. So what if he was not out? How many times have I got him out? If not the 1st ball, I could have got him out in the 2nd ball," he added.
Talking about Glenn McGrath's reaction after he was given out LBW on the thrilling final day, Harbhajan said the ball would have crashed into the middle stump.
Notably, with McGrath's wicket, the visitors were bowled out for 212 while chasing 384 in the fourth innings.
"It was straight in line, it was going to spin as well. I think if I see that now... with DRS, it would have hit the stumps for sure. But that's McGrath for you. Australians are... they produced a lot of great players but are very bad losers. When it comes to losing a match from that situation... where they were, it must have given them a hard, hard time," he said.
