India vs South Africa: Ashish Nehra 'surprised' by Rishabh Pant's decision not to use Yuzvendra Chahal

South Africa disrupted India’s streak of 12 matches unbeaten in T20Is by triumphing in the first game on Thursday. By chasing 212 runs, not only did South Africa take a 1-0 lead, they got there by registering their biggest successful chase. David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen were pivotal to the chase as the visitors got to the mark with five balls to spare.

Miller scored a stunning 64 not out off just 31 balls and was ably supported by Van der Dussen who finished with 75* off 46 balls despite struggling for the first 30 balls of his innings.

At the death, the Indian bowling proved expensive. Surprisingly, step-in captain Rishabh Pant opted against using spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for his full quota of overs. By the 19th over, Chahal had bowled two overs and was brought on to bowl the final over when only four runs were required.

The decision to not use the Purple Cap winner in IPL 2022 for the full four overs baffled many. Ashish Nehra, coach of IPL champions Gujarat Titans, was critical of Pant’s decision with the South African batters going ballistic.

“The opposition scored 212 and Chahal bowled merely two overs. It wasn’t as if he conceded 22 runs in one over. You know that the runs are flowing. Even Axar Patel bowled an over to the left-handed David Miller. So, it was quite surprising for me that a bowler like Yuzvendra Chahal bowled only two,” Nehra said on Cricbuzz.

“Even Rassie van der Dussen was there. Even if you’re looking at the left-right combination, you did bowl Axar Patel. So, I think you should’ve bowled Chahal. I can understand the thinking that you would want to contain the flow of runs, but once David Miller started hitting sixes off almost every over, you had to bring Chahal in,” the former India fast bowler further said.

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Chahal’s final figures saw him bowl 2.1 overs and conceded 26 runs. Fellow spinner Axar Patel went for 1/40 from four overs.

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