Cardiff T20: England tackled Kuldeep well, says Chahal

England’s victory was aided by its batsmen’s better handling of chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, observes Yuzvendra Chahal.

Published : Jul 07, 2018 12:51 IST , Cardiff

 Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Joe Root and gave away 28 runs in his four overs.
Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Joe Root and gave away 28 runs in his four overs.
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Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Joe Root and gave away 28 runs in his four overs.

England batsmen made fewer mistakes in the second Twenty20 than in the previous contest, according to India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

England won the second Twenty20 International by five wickets to level the three-match series 1-1. Like his captain Virat Kohli, Chahal observed tackling Kuldeep Yadav better was key to England’s victory.

Chahal said, “This time around they took calculated risks against Kuldeep. They did not hit out against him in the first three overs. Only in his last over [did] they hit out because at that stage we also had a chance to win the game. The fact that with a target of just 150-odd we took the game to the last over means we bowled well.”

The wicket at Cardiff was different to Manchester, the venue of the first contest. There was a small layer of grass owing to which the new ball was flying around. Perhaps this is why India’s top-order didn’t get going after being put into bat, and despite Virat Kohli’s 47 off 38 balls, the visitor could only finish with a sub-par 148 for five.

‘Seaming wicket’

“The wicket was a bit helpful for the medium pacers because it was a seaming wicket. There was good bounce. So you will see that neither team was able to score big in the PowerPlay. You can say that we could have defended 150, if we could have prevented those two-three sixes in the end,” Chahal said.

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“During the break, we didn’t talk about being 20-30 runs short. When we scored 150-odd on this wicket, we thought we could defend it. We didn’t think we needed 170-180 here because the wicket was totally different. The ball wasn’t coming that well on to the bat here,” he reasoned.

Adaptability key

The third and final Twenty20 will be played on Sunday in Bristol, a ground with shorter boundaries. Chahal looked forward to the challenge of adapting. “In the [Indian Premier League (IPL)], I play at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the boundaries here are a little bigger than there. But whenever bowling at short grounds, you have to change your lengths accordingly and bowl fuller on these wickets. I try to vary my pace especially when I am bowling a good length delivery, and I try to bowl a bit slower,” he said.

Chahal was confident of Umesh Yadav’s ability to fill the void left by Jasprit Bumrah’s absence.

He said, “If you see the way Umesh bhai has been bowling from the IPL, and even in the Afghanistan Test, he has been very confident in his bowling. This is only his third international T20 match since 2012 but you can see the maturity which he is bowling, both at the start and in the death overs. [He is helping us get] the kind of start we want in the first six overs; he is delivering wickets for us.”

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