Yuzvendra Chahal could not impress much in the first two matches of the ongoing five-match T20I series between the Indian cricket team and the South African cricket team, but he made an excellent comeback in the third T20I and won the Man of the Match award. Chahal picked up three important wickets and conceded only 20 runs in his four overs to help India win by 48 runs.
South African cricket team captain Temba Bavuma won the toss and asked the Indian cricket team to bat first again. The opening pair of Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad provided an excellent start to the team. They set the platform for the other batters by scoring 97 runs in 10 overs.
However, the trio of Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik could not take the advantage of the good start. Hardik Pandya’s 31-run knock helped the Indian cricket team finish with a 179-run total in their 20 overs.
Chasing 180 runs, the South African cricket team never got going. They lost wickets at regular intervals and were all out for 131 runs in 19.1 overs. Harshal Patel was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/25, but it was Chahal’s spell that made the most impact.
Yuzvendra Chahal broke the back of the South African cricket team’s batting lineup
Chahal, who won IPL 2022 Purple Cap, dismissed Dwaine Pretorius, Heinrich Klaasen and Rassie van der Dussen to turn the match in India’s favor. Speaking at the post-match presentation after winning the Player of the Match award, Chahal said:
“Today I tried to get it to turn and bowl slower. I tried to bowl to my strengths, I focused on that. When batters try to reverse-sweep, it becomes tough for the bowlers. But now I have a second plan and set fields accordingly. I didn’t bowl well in the previous game, the coach asked me to back my strengths.”
