‘Bowling in South Africa is better than in India’, says Kuldeep Yadav

Indian spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav seem to be in prime form in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa. The wrist spinners shared 13 wickets between them in the first two games with Chahal taking a fifer (5/22) in the second ODI at Centurion on Sunday. The duo has 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 Centurion pitch offered ample assistance to Chahal and Yadav as India dismissed South Africa for 118, its lowest total at home. Chahal ended up with a career-best five for 22. The visitor eventually cantered to a nine-wicket win in the second ODI to go 2-0 up in the six-match series.

Kuldeep even stated that found the South African pitches “better” for the spinners. The duo, in a light-hearted interview to bcci.tv conducted by none other than team-mate Bhuvneshwar Kumar, threw light on the topic. The chinaman bowler disclosed, “We knew that the fast wickets would assist spinners. The pitch has bounce and the ball reaches the batsman faster. He won’t have much time to go on the backfoot. At times, I feel this is better than India,”

Chahal, who claimed his second five-wicket haul in limited-overs, the first being against England (6/25) in a T20 game, added, I usually bowl outside the off-stump, which invites a batsman to step out.”

Match Details

South Africa was dismissed for just 118 runs, courtesy a fifer from Chahal. India came back quickly to chase the total and had all but done so with Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan before a bizarre decision to call for Lunch had everyone shocked.

With two runs to get, players returned after 40 minutes and nine balls after the break, India cruised to victory. After that pulsating contest in the first ODI where India staged a fantastic chase, the second ODI was a walk in the park.