Yuzvendra Chahal takes a dig at Steve Smith, says two new balls was a plus point for Australia
BCCI
Yuzvendra Chahal took a dig at Steve Smith, who had claimed that two new balls reduced their chances of a win, stating that if Australia had won then they could have said that the same was the plus point. Chahal also praised Virat Kohli for giving freedom to spin bowlers to bowl as per their wishes.
After a rain delay reduced Australia's innings to just 21 overs, India managed to win the series opener by 26 runs. India batted first and gave the visitors a target of 282-runs but due to the rain, Australia got the revised target of 164. After the introduction of the T20 format in cricket, high scores seem achievable and for the Australia cricket team, which has a number of players practicing their trade in the Indian Premier League, the revised score seemed to be a par one. But, they failed to perform as eight players even failed to reach double-digits. Earlier, Australian skipper Smith blamed the usage of two new balls for their downfall, but Chahal was quick to refute the claim explaining that the same players would have said that the two ball situation was beneficial for them.
“If they would have won then they could have said that (two new balls) was a plus point because the ball came on nicely to the bat,” he said as reported by The Indian Express.
“Our minus point was that we had to bowl 10 overs each with a new ball. We bowled well, so whether it’s a new or old ball, it doesn’t matter. Australia had an advantage in the 20-over game, because the rule was not for a 20-over game and the extra fielder was always in the inner circle. But the plus (for India) was that the wicket was turning and the way our medium-pacers bowled at the start helped us put pressure on them from the very beginning. We never allowed them to get into the game.”
The Indian cricket team is following the rotation policy which has helped the team improve its bench strength ahead of the 2019 World Cup. In the first ODI against the Kangaroos, the Indian bowlers proved the same with their inclusion of Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav in place of the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Chahal along with Yadav ensured India’s win as they shared five wickets between them.
“There was no pressure as such. We don’t think a lot about what’s happening. We go by the nature of the wicket and since both of us are attacking, we go for wickets,” he said.
“Wrist spinners are mostly attacking and when your captain is so attacking, you get more freedom to attack.”
Glenn Maxwell, who tried to turn the match result in favour of the visitors scored an 18-ball 39 which included three boundaries and four maximums but his effort was ended by Chahal. The Haryana lad revealed that his IPL experience helped him dismiss the Kings XI Punjab batsman's innings.
“I’ve bowled a lot to Maxwell in IPL so I was confident,” said the Indian spinner.
“My plus point is that Kuldeep’s ball comes into the batsmen, and mine goes out. Mahi bhai and Virat told me to bowl the one that turns and keep checking his feet. My idea was to bowl a little wide to him and from there if he hits a good shot, then it is fine.
“The plan was to get it to spin, but change the line. We kept bowling wide outside off-stump, so if he had to hit, he would have to hit on the offside because he is strong on the leg side, the 27-year-old said.”
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