New Delhi: Varun Chakravarthy made life tough for South Africa in the low-scoring chase at the St George’s Park in Gqeberha in the second T20 International match on Sunday. The leg-spinner claimed his career-best figures of 5 for 17 in the shortest format, which is not the joint-best bowling figures by an Indian spinner in T20Is in the rainbow nation. Chakravarthy joined Kuldeep Yadav to share this feat.
If not for the late rescue act by Tristan Stubbs (47 off 41 balls) and Gerald Coetzee (19 off 9 balls), Chakravarthy would have walked off the field with a lot of confidence blooming in his mind with all of teammates embracing him and showering praise for the next couple of games. All these events can still happen but the taste of victory is altogether a different zone to be in.
Perhaps that won’t be the case for the Tamil Nadu bowler, but that shouldn’t even make him not be contend with the fact that he orchestrated the Proteas skittle. You have to be wily as well as razor-sharp to deceive the likes of Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, and Marco Jansen all in the same day.
It was an icing on the cake to see Chakravarthy get rid of Klaasen and Miller in the same over, putting India almost into the driver’s seat. Given with the mindset the Proteas are known to play (no we aren’t into the ‘C’ term anymore) even when the pressure isn’t glooming, it was baffling to watch them get past the finishing line in the penultimate over.
In how the game turned around on its head, it wouldn’t be wrong to hold Suryakumar Yadav and pace duo of Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan robbed Chakravarthy from his heroics. It was a classic googly that crashed onto the stumps of David Miller, no wonder why the senior Proteas was baffled with the dismissal. Perhaps he was lost in the art of Chakravarthy turning with variations and angles.
Once known to be India’s mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy was considered to be in India’s longer scheme of plans in the white-ball formats. He shot through prominence from domestic cricket to IPL to the national side.
Varun Chakravarthy registered career-best figures of 5 for 17 from four overs in India’s three-wicket loss against South Africa in the second T20 International in Gqeberha. It is joint-best bowling figures by an Indian spinner in South Africa. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
