India vs England | We did well to take target of 150 to last over, says Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal has stated that Indian bowlers did well to take the modest total 150 to the last over of the game, but insisted that Indian bowlers could have defended the total. He has also pointed out that wicket was helpful to medium pacers and ball didn’t come onto the bat quite easily.
England edged past India in the second T20I at Cardiff by 5 wickets and leveled the series 1-1. Batting first, 47 from captain Virat Kohli and some late hitting from MS Dhoni, who scored 32 not out, helped India reach a respectable total of 148 runs. Given the fact that India didn’t have a good start, it was a good effort from the batters. Yuzvendra Chahal insisted that Indian bowlers did well to take target to last over.
“England played carefully and picked the bowls to hit. We took the target of 150 to last over so I think we bowled well,” Yuzvendra Chahal said in the post-match conference.
Chasing 149 to win off their 20 overs, England's big hitters at the top of the order Jos Buttler and Jason Roy were both out cheaply trying to get the early run rate up to Umesh Yadav. Then it was, Alex Hales who made 58 runs from 41 balls to get his side over the line when they were faltering. Chahal pointed out that team was not 20-30 runs short rather they could have defended the total.
“It wasn’t a wicket where we needed 170 180 on board. We could have defended 150 because the wicket was different from last match as pacers’ bowls were not coming onto the bat easily. The wicket was helpful to the medium pacers, it had good seam and bounce because of which both the teams couldn’t do well in the power play,” he said.
On being asked about the short dimensions of the ground and how it affected his bowling, Chahal said, “Even in IPL I play in Chinnaswamy and boundaries of both the grounds are almost same. So for me it was I had to keep changing my length and couldn’t bowl full on this wicket. I made my mind to bowl slow good length deliveries and tried to vary my pace.”
English players had struggled against the Indian spinners in the opening game in Manchester but played with more confidence here and Kuldeep Yadav who took five for 24 in the first game went wicketless.
“England players would have worked on their mistakes and must have watched Kuldeep’s videos. They didn’t take much risk and played carefully in first three overs of Kuldeep and in the last over they took calculated risk.”
