Analysis of India spinner Yuzvendra Chahal's performance against Bangladesh in T20 tri-series final

Ajit Vijaykumar 20:27 18/03/2018
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  • India leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal continued his great form in the Nidahas Trophy on Sunday, picking up 3-18 against Bangladesh in the final.

    On a new pitch in Colombo that had more bounce than usual, Chahal gave his best performance of the tournament.

    Chahal (3-18) and Washington Sundar (1-20) giving hardly anything away in their spell of four overs each. Here we analyse the performance of the leg-spinner in the final against Bangladesh.

    STATISTICS

    OVERS BOWLED: 4

    WICKETS: 3

    RUNS CONCEDED: 18

    ECONOMY: 4.5

    FOURS: 1

    30-SECOND REPORT

    The leg-spinner is India’s best wicket-taking option on most pitches. In Colombo, Chahal backed his strengths by tossing the ball up. He got three top Bangladesh wickets – Tamim Iqbal (caught at long on), Soumya Sarkar (caught sweeping) and Mushfiqur Rahim (leading edge off a top spinner-cum-googly). His career economy rate is very high – 8.1 – but on Sunday he dried up the scoring to complete a dream spell when it really mattered – in the final.

    GOT RIGHT

    Bowled slow through the air, didn’t lose his line and struck twice in his first over. Rohit Sharma couldn’t possibly have asked for more from his wrist spinner. Chahal is now an experienced campaigner in T20 cricket and showed his maturity at a crucial juncture – first innings of a final.

    GOT WRONG

    Hardly anything. Bowled nine dot balls, gave away just one boundary and took three wickets. A near perfect bowling effort in a T20 final from a wrist-spinner. If anything, could have bowled more googlies but that’s just nitpicking.

    KEY MOMENTS

    OPENING OVER

    Bowlers hardly get any time to settle in a T20 match. A quiet opening over is what most bowlers look for. But Chahal struck twice in his first, getting rid of Iqbal and Sarkar. That put the pressure back on Bangladesh and allowed Chahal to bowl at the pace and trajectory he wanted as the Tigers concentrated on not losing more wickets.

    BOWLING SLOW

    Wrist spinners don’t have to spear every ball in at 100kph in T20 cricket. Chahal wasn’t afraid to toss the ball up to the eyeline of the batsman and plant a seed of doubt in the mind of every Bangladeshi. His leg spinners, googlies and top spinners did just about enough to produce false strokes. And that’s all you need in T20s.

    NOT AFRAID OF NEWISH BALL

    Chahal bowled around the fifth over mark in the last two games. He was into the attack in the fifth over of the Bangladesh innings and struck immediately on a wicket that had more bounce than other pitches in the T20 tri-series. The new ball, if used well, can aid spinners and Chahal did just that.

    TAMING THE TIGERS

    In the two previous games against Bangladesh, Chahal had figures of 1-21 and 1-19. That showed Bangladesh were finding it difficult to score off him. Not only did he keep the scoring rate down in the final, his three wickets ensured Bangladesh could only look to play him out. Finished with eight wickets from five matches in the tournament at an economy of 6.4.

    VERDICT: 9/10

    What more do you need? Chahal kept the runs down and took wickets, making up for the lacklustre effort from seamers Shardul Thakur (0-45) and Vijay Shankar (0-48). Top effort.

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