IND vs BAN: Yuzvendra Chahal produces his magic yet again
You don’t see many leg-spinners these days bowling the 18th over in a T20I. And even fewer who can flight the ball at a speed of 76kmph. You need a lot of confidence, luck and above all, guts to do that. Yuzvendra Chahal did just that with effortless ease yesterday and conceded just 4 runs in the over with a mix of his stock balls and the wrong ones.
He finished with figures of 2 for 28 in his 4 overs and India secured a fantastic series-levelling 8-wicket victory later on.
Of all the types bowling, leg spin requires maximum skill. It is the most difficult art to execute. But Chahal has that knack of putting it to good use in tough situations when the side is under the pump.
Yuzvendra Chahal to the rescue
Bangladesh were cruising at 54/0 after the first six overs of power play, the last of which was bowled by him, and it went for 13 runs. But he had gauged the situation and, thus, came back determined in the next over to give away just five runs. At the halfway stage, his bowling numbers read 0 for 18 in two overs.
Yuzvendra Chahal produced a match-defining spell of 4-0-28-2 at Rajkot
The real magic began in the second half of the innings as he gave away just 10 runs in his final two overs, including an over in the death. He applied brakes on Bangladesh in the 13th over with back-to-back wickets of the very dangerous Mushfiqur Rahim and the well-settled Soumya Sarkar. While the former was caught in the deep, the later was stumped by Rishabh Pant.
Chahal has been quite consistent with his bowling this series as he has made timely adjustments by reading the situations. Despite being the only specialist spinner in the playing eleven, he has led from the front. He had admitted in the press conference after the Delhi defeat that he is under no pressure from the management or anyone. What he meant truly translated into his bowling in both the matches so far.
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A lot of credit also goes to skipper Rohit Sharma for using Chahal brilliantly at various stages in the innings and ensuring he gets the best out of him.
The reason for his success is that he is primarily a T20 bowler, at least that’s how he emerged through the IPL ranks before becoming an India ODI regular. He carries a rather aggressive mindset as compared to regular wrist spinners. This allows him to have more faith in his abilities and gain an upper hand over the batsman at least once in his quota of 4 overs.
Delhi was good. Rajkot was splendid for Chahal, while Nagpur awaits some magic. Can his third outing be as good as the previous ones? Only time will tell but chances look quite bright.
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