Ex-India bowler Ashish Nehra has showered commendations on spinner Yuzvendra Chahal’s outstanding bowling performance in the third T20I against South Africa on June 14. Chahal finished with figures of 3/20 from his four overs at an economy rate of five. His spell played a crucial role in helping the Men in Blue keep their series hopes alive. Evaluating the player’s strategies in the last match, Nehra said that not only was he back to his aggressive best but also varied his length and pace really well. The strategy worked extremely well in the spinner’s favor as he accounted for South Africa’s tamed middle-order trio of Rassie van der Dussen, Dwaine Pretorius, and a well-set Heinrich Klassen.
“Only a few times have we seen Harshal Patel bowl in the powerplay for RCB. This time he conceded a bit but picked up a wicket as well. The aggressive Chahal was on show today, the one we know. He varied his length and pace very well today. After the last match, Chahal must have thought that he was a little defensive,” Ashish Nehra stated. “Chahal had completely trapped the batters with his flight. He completely took the middle order apart by himself, and by the time he was done with his first three overs, the match was well out of South Africa’s grasp,” he added.
The Proteas had an off day with the ball and the bat despite skipper Temba Bavuma having won a third straight toss and deciding to bowl first. The bowlers failed to make early inroads as Ruturaj Gaikwad (57), and Ishan Kishan (54) added 97 runs for the first wicket before Hardik Pandya’s (31*) finishing touches helped India finish at 179/5. In response, the visitors’ chase could never take off in the first place as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually bundled out for 131 in the final over to go down by 48 runs. However, the visitors still lead the five-match series 2-1.
