Durban: Irfan Pathan may not have picked up a wicket in India's exhilarating victory over South Africa on Thursday but the comeback kid will remember it as one of his best spells in the ICC World Twenty20. Moments after he was woken up from his well-earned slumber on Friday to meet the media at the team hotel, he was glowing about his magical spell of Thursday night.

"The new ball bowlers (S Sreesanth and RP Singh) had done a wonderful job and the onus was on me to keep up the good work," he said, a day after the win knocked South Africa out of the competition. "I didn't get any wickets but I didn't go for many runs either. The ball was swinging a bit and I was bowling in good areas. A spell like that does give you much confidence."

It is not as if Pathan came to the ICC event seeking confidence. As India's most experienced bowler in the format, he was keen on using the opportunity to reaffirm his belief that he was on the road back to the Indian team after a spell in the wilderness when he had to sort his bowling action out.

"It hurt me to be out of the squad and it is not the best experience. I have been out of the team for the last six months, and in that period, I worked on my action. I have worked on using my non-bowling arm better. I was with TA Sekar and Dennis Lillee at the MRF Pace Foundation for a month and that stint really helped me.

"I bowled a lot of overs there. I also toured Zimbabwe and Kenya with the India A side. You can practice as much as you want in the nets but there is nothing like bowling in matches," Pathan said. "I came here feeling confident about myself. It is never nice not playing for your country, but the six months was a good learning experience. If you don't perform, you don't play for the country. All said and done, the time away from international cricket did help me though, like I said before, it is not a nice feeling to not play for India."

He is rediscovering the joy of that in T20 and is hoping that India would not be constrained by having to choose just two from Zaheer Khan, RP Singh and himself in the one-day series. "You can play three left-arm bowlers just as you can play three right arm fast medium bowlers," he said. "I would accept anything that the selectors and the team management decide."

He has a chance to swing the team management his way with another good showing to back up his efforts against Pakistan (4-1-20-2), England (4-0-37-3) and South Africa (4-10-16-0). "Tomorrow is a big game. We are gelling quite well as a team and we are a confident lot. We don't fear anybody," Pathan said. "We are here to play good cricket, we don't look at Australia as a huge team. We will give it our best shot and see how it goes. We are batting really well and bowling well too but the most important thing is our fielding. We are fielding very, very well. All three departments are clicking at the same time."

"We are very confident after yesterday's win. We were confident earlier as well but we fought yesterday incredibly hard. There were contributions from all players and as a unit, we all feel very good. We will try to do even better tomorrow," Pathan said, wearing a cloak of assurance that has marked this team out.

Durban: Irfan Pathan may not have picked up a wicket in India's exhilarating victory over South Africa on Thursday but the comeback kid will remember it as one of his best spells in the ICC World Twenty20. Moments after he was woken up from his well-earned slumber on Friday to meet the media at the team hotel, he was glowing about his magical spell of Thursday night.

"The new ball bowlers (S Sreesanth and RP Singh) had done a wonderful job and the onus was on me to keep up the good work," he said, a day after the win knocked South Africa out of the competition. "I didn't get any wickets but I didn't go for many runs either. The ball was swinging a bit and I was bowling in good areas. A spell like that does give you much confidence."

It is not as if Pathan came to the ICC event seeking confidence. As India's most experienced bowler in the format, he was keen on using the opportunity to reaffirm his belief that he was on the road back to the Indian team after a spell in the wilderness when he had to sort his bowling action out.

"It hurt me to be out of the squad and it is not the best experience. I have been out of the team for the last six months, and in that period, I worked on my action. I have worked on using my non-bowling arm better. I was with TA Sekar and Dennis Lillee at the MRF Pace Foundation for a month and that stint really helped me.

"I bowled a lot of overs there. I also toured Zimbabwe and Kenya with the India A side. You can practice as much as you want in the nets but there is nothing like bowling in matches," Pathan said. "I came here feeling confident about myself. It is never nice not playing for your country, but the six months was a good learning experience. If you don't perform, you don't play for the country. All said and done, the time away from international cricket did help me though, like I said before, it is not a nice feeling to not play for India."

He is rediscovering the joy of that in T20 and is hoping that India would not be constrained by having to choose just two from Zaheer Khan, RP Singh and himself in the one-day series. "You can play three left-arm bowlers just as you can play three right arm fast medium bowlers," he said. "I would accept anything that the selectors and the team management decide."

He has a chance to swing the team management his way with another good showing to back up his efforts against Pakistan (4-1-20-2), England (4-0-37-3) and South Africa (4-10-16-0). "Tomorrow is a big game. We are gelling quite well as a team and we are a confident lot. We don't fear anybody," Pathan said. "We are here to play good cricket, we don't look at Australia as a huge team. We will give it our best shot and see how it goes. We are batting really well and bowling well too but the most important thing is our fielding. We are fielding very, very well. All three departments are clicking at the same time."

"We are very confident after yesterday's win. We were confident earlier as well but we fought yesterday incredibly hard. There were contributions from all players and as a unit, we all feel very good. We will try to do even better tomorrow," Pathan said, wearing a cloak of assurance that has marked this team out.