Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal opened up on his strengths after producing a match-winning spell for India in the third T20I against South Africa in Visakhapatnam. Chahal claimed three crucial wickets to dent South Africa’s chase as they were bundled out for 131 in reply to India’s 179/5.
The ace spinner had forgettable performances in the first two matches of the series where he failed to create any impact as a result India suffered crushing defeats in both of them.
India vs South Africa 2022: Schedule | News | Photos
However, he bounced back and bowled to his strength in Visakhapatnam to trouble the Proteas batters. Chahal opened up on what went wrong for him in the last couple of matches and how it changed on Tuesday.
“I bowled a lot of sliders and bowled quicker in the previous matches. Today, I changed my seam position. Spinning and getting the ball to dip are my strengths,” Chahal said in the post-match presentation.
Chahal was rewarded for bowling quick as he got extra bounce from the wicket to get the better of Rassie van der Dussen (1), Dwaine Pretorius (20) and Heinrich Klassen (29).
The 31-year-old said he changed his plans for the third T20I and tried to bowl slower to get more turn from the surface which was not on offer in New Delhi and Cuttack.
“Today I tried to get it to turn and bowl slower. I tried to bowl to my strengths, I focused on that. When you get middle-order batsmen out in the middle overs, the pressure is on them,” he added.
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With the evolution of cricket and emergence of T20 format, almost every batter has made reverse sweep a big weapon to tackle the spin. However, Chahal said that he has found a solution to it and he planned his field according to that.
“When batters try to reverse-sweep, it becomes tough for the bowlers. But now I have a second plan and set fields accordingly,” he added.
He further shared details of the advice the bowling coach gave him after an underwhelming show in the first two matches.
“I didn’t bowl well in the previous game, the coach asked me to back my strengths,” he said.
Talking about his plans for the fourth T20I, Chahal just said, “The ground there (Rajkot) is bigger (*chuckles*).”
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