New Delhi: Taking a five-wicket haul while defending a smallish target of 125 runs is an extraordinary effort, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav said of Varun Chakravarthy despite it not leading to the team’s victory.
India were beaten by a three-wicket margin by South Africa in the second T20I in Gqeberha on Sunday, making the four match series level at 1-1.
The visiting team could only post 124/6 after being invited to bat. It was meant to be a simple run chase for South Africa but Chakaravarthy’s guile made it tougher.
The leg spinner’s career best 5/17 reduced South Africa to 66 for 6 in the 13th over but Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) played maturely to pull the hosts past the finishing line.
The defeat ended India’s 11-match winning streak but skipper Yadav wasn’t too mindful of it, instead preferring to praise Chakravarthy for a magical spell of spin bowling.
Fifth Indian bowler with five wickets in T20Is
Chakravarthy became only the fifth India bowler after Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (twice), Deepak Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav to claim five wickets in a T20I game.
“In a T20, someone getting a five-for while defending 125 is incredible. Varun has been waiting for this for a long time, working hard on his bowling, and everyone enjoyed it,” Yadav said after the match.
Yadav made only four runs and along with openers Sanju Samson (0) and Abhishek Sharma (4) were dismissed cheaply as the Indian batters struggled to cope with disciplined bowling. But Yadav wasn’t keen to look much into it.
“You always have to back whatever total you get. Of course, in a T20 game you don’t wanna get 120, but proud of the way we bowled,” he said.
“Two games to go, lot of entertainment left. 1-1 going into Jo’burg gonna be a lot of fun.”
Leg spinner Varun Chakravarthy took a career best 5/17 in India’s three-wicket loss to South Africa in the second T20I Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
