India captain Virat Kohli once again praised the “outstanding” wrist spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. The duo once again made mincemeat of South African, picking up eight wickets between them, as India marched to a 3-0 lead in the series with a 124-run win on Wednesday.
Kohli, who scored a brilliant match-winning 160*, singled out the courage shown by Yadav and Chahal, “I don’t have words to explain this. Credit to them,” Kohli was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. “Both have been working hard on their game and are very brave in terms of how they bowl and the kind of fields they want as well. They are very brave tossing the ball and asking the batsman to come out and play a risky shot. Hats off to them but the other debate is a bit away from now. You never know what happens in the future but I am really happy at the moment,” the India captain added.
India now have a 3-0 lead in the six-match series and Yadav and Chahal have made telling contributions in each of them. They have 21 wickets between them and their runs have come at a miserly economy rate of 3.63. In the post match presser, Kohli was asked if the spin twins could soon permanently feature in the Test team as well, “Those are things that are quite a bit away from now,” Kohli said.
“Look they are obviously making a very strong case for themselves, bowling in these conditions and making breakthroughs like we haven’t seen before. It’s outstanding to see two guys just totally spinning a web around the opposition. There doesn’t seem to be a way out at all. It’s unbelievable. Taking eight wickets today. Outstanding.”
‘Massive x-factor’
Kuldeep and Chahal are asked to go for wickets at all times and Kohli says he isn’t worried about them leaking runs, “The thing is very simple,” Kohli said. “They are told to go for wickets at all times. When you are going for wickets you are bowling in areas that are uncomfortable for the batsmen and more often than not they end up defending. When you bowl wide and try to save runs then you give an opportunity to take singles also.
“They might get hit for 70-odd in the next game. But there is no problem in that because you know that if they bowl attacking lines then they will end up picking two-three wickets every game. In these conditions now and we are going to play the World Cup away from home, that I think is going to be the massive x-factor for us,” Kohli said.