India opened their World Cup 2019 campaign with a 6-wicket win over South Africa on Wednesday. At the Rose Bowl in Southampton, Virat Kohli’s team limited South Africa, who chose to bat first, to a modest 227-9 and then chased down the runs in 47.3 overs.
The match was set up for the Indian team by the bowling unit, who bowled excellent lines and lengths and kept the pressure right through the innings. Among the six bowlers Virat Kohli employed, the one who stood out was Yuzvendra Chahal; the right-arm leg-spinner cleaned up the South African middle order and finished with figures of 10-0-51-4.
Chahal, who has established a reputation of being a shrewd and brave bowler, impressed with his reading of the game; each of his four wickets were the result of him reading, setting up and outsmarting the South African batsmen. He struck twice in his second over.
First, he used the combination of flight and drift to deceive Rassie van der Dussen and castled the batsman. He then set-up Faf du Plessis with the googly and casted him with the slider next ball. Chahal’s third wicket was that of David Miller, who drove a tossed-up delivery straight back to the bowler. The fourth wicket was that of Andile Phehlukwayo, who was beaten in flight and missed a leg-stump delivery attempting a wild heave, only to be stumped.
Chahal’s figures against South Africa would be the best returns for a spinner in ODIs at the Rose Bowl in Southampton; he bettered the record set by the England leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who had taken 4 for 59 against Australia in 2015.
Impressive World Cup Debut
Many cricketers have in the past lost the plot when playing at the World Cup. Not Chahal, who was unaffected by the intimidating stage the World Cup can be. The leg-spinner wasn’t intimidated by the occasion of his World Cup debut, the pressure of expectations, or the situation of the match, and ended up with excellent figures; his 4 for 51 would be the second-best figures by an Indian bowler on World Cup debut.
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