Yuzvendra Chahal
celebrates with captain Virat Kohli after dismissing South African batsman Quinton de Kock during the second one- day international between South Africa and India at Centurion Park in Pretoria on Sunday. Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav’s wrist spin outfoxed a depleted South Africa as India romped to a crushing nine- wicket win in the second ODI. India now lead the six- match series 2- 0.
Centurion, Feb. 4: Wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have so far proved to be unplayable against South Africa in the ongoing ODI series and India captain Virat Kohli is confident that they can extract turn from any surface.
“The pitch was harder than Durban and the spinners used it. We knew we won’t get grass on the pitch because when it’s seaming, it can be anyone’s game. We knew the wickets would be hard and dry and knew our wrist spinners can get it to turn anywhere. They just didn’t give South Africa any chance,” said Kohli. The Indian captain had no hesitation in opting to chase. “If we set up to chase down totals, we know exactly what we want to do. Rohit and Shikhar’s intent at the top is crucial. They started off well in the last game too. We back guys to play positive cricket. It’s ( 2- 0) a wonderful position to be in. We know their middleorder was in ex perienced, and we wanted to to cash in on that.” Stand- in captain Aiden Markram said batsmen let his team down. “Not the best performance today. It’s a day about which we have to be really honest with ourselves. There were too many soft dismissals starting from myself. It was always going to be difficult to defend ( 118) but look, the day is over. We can’t afford slipups now. It might bring out the best in us,” he said.