Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav ultra-slow, left them spinning, admit South Africa | Cricket - Hindustan Times
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Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav ultra-slow, left them spinning, admit South Africa

Hindustan Times, Centurion | By
Feb 04, 2018 09:42 PM IST

Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav together snared eight wickets, helping India to a 9-wicket victory over South Africa in the 2nd ODI in Centurion.

Despite going down without a whimper after throwing away their wickets to Indian spinners playing rash shots, South Africa won’t change their batting style. (India vs South Africa blog | Scorecard)

Indian bowler Yuzvendra Chahal was named Man of the Match for his five wicket haul against South Africa in the 2nd ODI at Centurion on Sunday.(AFP)
Indian bowler Yuzvendra Chahal was named Man of the Match for his five wicket haul against South Africa in the 2nd ODI at Centurion on Sunday.(AFP)

South Africa batting coach Dale Benkenstein said they’d rather attack Indian spinners, who bowled too slow and caught the home team’s hard-hitters by surprise.

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“We had the intent and looked to score. The players were hitting the ball and it went straight to fielders. We’d rather play that way instead of being too scared to score. We need to learn from Indian batsmen who punished poor bowling,” he said after the nine-wicket defeat at SuperSport Park.

READ | How bowling in IPL for RCB helped Yuzvendra Chahal in South Africa

While the batting coach said it is an opportunity for the youngsters -- skipper Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers are out due to injury -- he cautioned the seniors, asking them to buck up. South Africa have been perennially weak against spin, none more famous than their travails against Shane Warne.

“Even though AB and Faf aren’t playing, there are some very senior players that are still playing. And it’s a great opportunity for them to put their hands up and start winning some games,” he said.

Hashim Amla, Jean-Paul Duminy, David Miller, and to some extent Quinton de Kock, have all failed as the Proteas have struggled to get a hang of spin.

TOO SLOW FOR COMFORT

Benkenstein admitted it is tough to gear up for Indian spinners at such a short notice because both the Proteas spinners, Imran Tahir and left-arm Tabraiz Shamsi, bowl a lot quicker.

READ | International Cricket Council left red-faced over ‘archaic’ playing rules in India-South Africa 2nd ODI

“It’s very difficult, unless we can call them into our nets for practice. We’ve got a few net bowlers who are a little bit slow. As management we try and do everything possible. But at the end of the day, the batters have got to work it out. They’ve got to execute their own game plan.”

Stand-in skipper Aiden Markram, who led the team for the first time, was chastened by the experience.

“I don’t think we played spin incredibly well, it’s something we need to work on, but it’s not a massive danger for us.”

Markram was one of those to throw away his wicket, holing out to deep midwicket having just come in to bat.

READ | Yuzvendra Chahal, given licence to attack, kills off South Africa batting with five-for in Centurion

“My general game-plan is to try and take it quite deep, bat through the innings and let our attacking batsmen sort of play around me. I didn’t do that today. I try to keep it as low risk as possible, and then as soon as we get partnerships building we’ll chat between players and identify which bowler we’d like to put some pressure on.”

Unfortunately, the day a depleted South Africa cried for help, their leader didn’t respond.

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