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England needed to come together, admits Harmison

07/08/2008

Steve Harmison admitted the sudden resignation of Michael Vaughan has made the England team come together as a unit.

The returning fast bowler grabbed two wickets as England bowled out South Africa out for 194 in the fourth Test at the Oval today. England then finished on 49/1 on a day which marked a good start to the captaincy reign of Kevin Pietersen.

Harmison felt all the England players "lifted their games" today to support their new captain, who had only captained twice before in his entire career.

"When you lose a captain like Michael Vaughan you look at yourselves," said Harmison. "There was one leader which was Kevin (Pietersen) but the rest of us tried to lift our games. It was a great team effort and a special day for Kevin.

"You pretty much all have to be captain. We're all going to have to help him because he hasn't done the job before."

It was an excellent comeback to Test cricket for Harmison, who came back into the team after missing eight Test matches. The rejuvenated Durham paceman bowled in excess of 90mph and troubled all the South African batsmen.

"It's brilliant, what I've worked hard for," said Harmison. "I've bowled a lot of overs this year but it gave me the confidence to run up and know my areas."

England will now have to take advantage of the strong position they are in and Harmison felt it was time his side took advantage of this situation after they had failed to do so on previous occasions in the series.