"They won India the match" - Aakash Chopra lauds R Ashwin and Axar Patel's spells in the 2nd IND vs NZ T20I
Aakash Chopra has highlighted that Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel's exceptional spells turned the course of the second T20I against New Zealand in Team India's favor.
Ashwin and Patel conceded just 45 runs in the combined eight overs they bowled and scalped two wickets in the process. Harshal Patel, who was duly chosen as the Player of the Match for his spell of 2/25 on his T20I debut, was the other standout Indian bowler.
While reviewing India's bowling performance in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra was effusive in his praise of Ashwin and Axar Patel. He said:
"Ashwin and Axar together took a couple of wickets, they were economical as well. In my opinion, both of them set the match, let's be very honest. It is difficult to bowl spin with an extremely wet ball, both bowled exceedingly well and brought India back in the match. In fact, in my opinion they won India the match."
The cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that the spin duo had brought India back into the game after Martin Guptill and Daryl Mitchell had given the Kiwis a blazing start. Chopra elaborated:
"The start Guptill and Mitchell had given, they were smashing it from the first over. They started batting as though they are going to post 200-225 runs. They demolished the Indian bowlers in the first six overs."
Guptill and Mitchell smoked 48 runs for the first wicket before the former was dismissed on the second ball of the fifth over. Team India staged a comeback thereafter to restrict the Black Caps to a score of 153/6 in their allotted 20 overs.
"The spinners bowled amazingly well" - Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra highlighted the impact the spinners had post the powerplay overs. He explained:
"When you score 64 runs in the powerplay and still do not post a total of 154, it means you didn't even score 90 runs in the last 14 overs, it implies the spinners bowled amazingly well, whether it was Ashwin or Axar Patel."
India's spinners this series (Ashwin + Axar):
1st T20I: 2/54 in 8 overs (ER 6.75)
2nd T20I: 2/45 in 8 overs (ER 5.63)
While also lauding Harshal Patel's excellent spell on debut, the 44-year-old added that Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were found slightly wanting. Aakash Chopra observed:
"After that, Harshal Patel. He bowled the difficult overs, I thought he was very very good. The surprising and troubling thing is that Deepak Chahar is not bowling well and in this match Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was economical in the last match, his meter was also down."
Harshal Patel said "I am not exceptionally talented, I had to build it from ground level. The progress was gradual and slow - I have made mistakes, then found which I can do and I cannot do - it has been a great journey, cricket has taught me lots of lessons".
Chahar and Kumar conceded a total of 81 runs in the eight overs they bowled. Team India might look to leave one of the two seamers out and play Avesh Khan in the final T20I.