Former South Africa cricketer Neil McKenzie said that the Proteas need to improve their batting show against the wrist spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal if they wish to give India a fight in the ODI series. Yadav (3/34) and his fellow spinner Chahal (2/45) shared five wickets between them to restrict South Africa to 269 for 8, a target which India overwhelmed with six wickets in hand to take a 1-0 lead in the six-match ODI series.
“You know what sort of total you need at Durban and losing wickets at regular intervals didn’t help South Africa. Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav bowled very well,” McKenzie said.
“The Indian pacers had asked questions upfront with bounce and then the two wrist spinners came into play. They tied South Africa down, cut off the runs and then got two big scalps of Quinton de Kock and David Miller,” he explained.
“South African batsmen wouldn’t have seen a lot of these leggies, so they will need to go back and do their homework. They need to start countering this wrist spin from the next ODI,” McKenzie said.
“The partnership between Faf du Plessis and Chris Morris got South Africa back in the game, but they needed more firepower at the back end. It didn’t happen because they kept losing wickets at regular intervals,” he added.
