Watched South Africa ODIs 3-4 Times To See Where I Was Missing: Yuzvendra Chahal

After producing a match-winning performance against West Indies in the first ODI, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal on Sunday said that he watched each of his ODI games played in South Africa three or four times to know about his shortcomings and talked to skipper and bowling coach to improve his bowling.

Yuzvendra Chahal's 4/49, Washington Sundar's 3/30 and captain Rohit Sharma's quick-fire 60 helped India beat the West Indies by six wickets in the series opener at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.

The Motera offered some assistance to spinners and both Chahal and Sundar took full advantage of the conditions and took seven wickets between themselves to help the hosts bowl out West Indies for 176.

Off-spinner Sundar had missed the South Africa ODI series due to Covid, while leg-spinner Chahal who was part of the Proteas tour picked up only two wickets in three white ball matches as India failed to take crucial wickets in the middle-overs.

However, with his four wickets in the first ODI against West Indies, he showed signs of returning back to form.

"When I came back from South Africa, I watched each of my games three or four times to see where I was missing. I spoke to Rohit bhaiyya also after coming back and with Paras Mhambrey sir, our bowling coach. I worked on where I felt I was missing there," said Chahal in the post-match presentation.

During the first match, the 31-year-old also achieved the milestone of picking up 100 wickets in ODI cricket in his 60th match for India. With this, he became the 2nd fastest Indian spinner after his spin partner Kuldeep Yadav to achieve the feat as left-arm spinner took 58 matches to pick 100 ODI wickets.

Chahal mentioned how he adjusted his line and lengths after watching the ball turning on the Ahmedabad track.

"Washy created the pressure with his two wickets. When I saw his spell, I knew that the ball is turning on this pitch so I can flight the ball a bit. On these kinds of pitches, even if you flight the ball, it's not that easy to hit down the ground. I spoke to Rohit bhai, Virat bhaiyya, and realised that pace is important on this wicket," he said.

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"My usual slower pace won't work, because the quicker balls were spinning. I changed my line also, made it more middle and off. I bowl according to the pitch. I knew that here, the batters will find it easy to hit if I slowed it up. So I continued bowling quicker. You can bowl the odd slower one for variation," he added.