Rahul Chahar's 3 best spells in the IPL
Promising Indian spinner Rahul Chahar might be out of the reckoning for a place in the Indian team at the moment, but he has impressed fans and experts with his skills. In recent years, Rahul has emerged as a pivotal member of each franchise he has played for.
Having made his IPL debut for the Mumbai Indians in 2017, Rahul only played three matches in that edition. But they were enough to showcase his skills and everyone knew he was here to stay.
The leg-spinner steadily rose through the ranks and eventually became integral to the Mumbai Indians' set-up. His exploits with the ball for the five-time champions made the Indian selectors take notice and finally gave him his maiden break in 2019.
He made his T20I debut against West Indies in 2019 and played his only ODI against Sri Lanka in 2021.
He got sporadic chances in the T20 format but couldn't quite seize the opportunities and was eventually dropped from the squad. He was bought by the Punjab Kings ahead of the 2023 IPL season but couldn't quite live up to the expectations.
The leggie celebrated his 24th birthday on Friday (4th August) and his teammates and netizens wished the promising spinner on his special day. On that note, let us have a look at 3 of the best bowling performances of Rahul Chahar in the IPL:
3/25 for PBKS vs CSK in IPL 2022
Rahul Chahar produced a match-winning spell against the Chennai Super Kings in last year's edition of the competition. Punjab posted a competitive score of 180 on the board, mainly due to a brilliant half-century from Liam Livingstone.
CSK never really looked in the game and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Rahul just had to do the clean up and he did that with consummate ease.
Deceiving the likes of MS Dhoni, Dwaine Pretorius, and Chris Jordan, Rahul bagged three crucial wickets towards the fag end, which resulted in CSK's loss.
Shivam Dube struck an impressive half-century but it wasn't enough as the yellow brigade was bundled out for 126 in 18 overs.
3/19 for Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals in IPL 2019
Chahar had become an integral part of the Mumbai Indians set-up until he was snapped up by the Punjab Kings ahead of the 2023 edition.
The surface in Delhi was two-paced and Mumbai managed to post a competitive score of 168 on the back of quick-fire knocks from the Pandya brothers.
Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan started off the chase fluently. Rohit gave the new ball to Chahar, but he couldn't quite make an impact instantly. He picked the wicket of Dhawan in the seventh over which was followed by the wicket of Shaw.
He kept the pressure on the Capitals with the wicket of Shreyas Iyer and DC could never really recover from that. They eventually mustered only 128 runs at the end of their allotted 20 overs, eventually conceding a 40-run win for the Mumbai Indians.
4/27 for Mumbai Indians vs KKR IPL 2021
This would definitely rank as one of the best spells Chahar has bowled in his career. On a tricky surface, the Mumbai Indians batsmen struggled their way to a score of 152 on the back of a half-century from Suryakumar Yadav.
KKR was coasting along with openers Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill holding fort. They started off brilliantly and shared a 72-run opening stand before Rahul Chahar's introduction turned the game around.
A couple of quick wickets in the form of Gill and Rahul Tripathi turned things around for MI. However, Nitish Rana was still there and it looked like he would get them over the line.
Chahar was instrumental in inflicting the collapse with the wicket of Rana as KKR surrendered meekly, eventually losing the game by 10 runs from a dominating position.