New Delhi, June 5: Yuzvendra Chahal had a stunning start at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 as the wrist-spinner got a wicket on the very first delivery on his World Cup debut as Team India faced South Africa in their opening game at the showpiece event on Wednesday (June 5).
The leg-spinner was introduced in the 20th over by India captain Virat Kohli as the partnership between South Africa captain Faf du Plessis and middle-order batsman Rassie van der Dussen was looking threatening.
CWC 2019 Special Site | Full Schedule
The duo had already stitched a partnership of 54 runs between them and they had revived the Proteas after the loss of openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock in the first powerplay.
Initially, Kohli went with all-rounder Hardik Pandya and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav at the beginning of the second powerplay but despite bowling tightly and troubling both the batters, the bowlers failed to break their partnership. Kohli therefore decided to make another bowling change by introducing in-form Chahal into the attack and it made immediate impact.
On the very first ball of Chahal's debut WC spell, van der Dussen attempted a reverse sweep against the bowler but missed the ball completely which beat him on the leg stump and turned sharply towards the middle stump and hit the timber. Dussen's knock of 37-ball 22, thus, came to an end.
Watch Chahal's bowl of the tournament:
Bowl of the tournament for Y CHAHAL you Beauty
— Cricket (@Cricketscoree) June 5, 2019
RSA* 85/4 21.0 Ov
J Duminy 2(3),
D Miller 4(6)#CWC19 #INDvSA @cricketworldcup pic.twitter.com/wumk7er2OG
Chahal had another success in his very first over and got the big wicket of du Plessis by getting the Protea skipper clean bowled with another beauty and pushed the batting side on the backfoot. Du Plessis departed for 38.
Chahal later grabbed a couple of wickets more in his remaing overs. He got the wickets of set David Miller (31) and Andile Phehlukwayo (34). The leg-spinner caught Miller off his own bowling while got dangerous looking Phehlukwayo stumped by MS Dhoni behind the stumps.
Earlier, India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah too had a terrific start to his World Cup campaign as he got the wickets of Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock early on in his spell.
WHAT A START FROM JASPRIT BUMRAH! 👏
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 5, 2019
Here is the first wicket of the day when he dismissed Hashim Amla.https://t.co/RDlXGEFzro
Both the batsmen were caught at slip as Bumrah set them up in his trap after South Africa captain elected to bat after winning the toss.