With the sun baking up the dry and sluggish pitch in Paarl, it made for ideal conditions for Ashwin to make his comeback count. Yuzvendra Chahal, whose career shot to dizzy heights when he bamboozled the South Africans in the ODI series in 2018, was expected to apply the choke from the other end. Just when it seemed like the two spinners would put the South Africans in a spin, Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma brought out the sweep shot – both the reverse and the conventional one.
Both ended their spells, conceding 53 runs with Ashwin claiming Quinton de Kock’s wicket early in the innings. The sweep shot, the go- to weapon for most overseas batters, managed to negate the spin threat, something captain KL Rahul boasted about on the eve of the match.
Interestingly, Ashwin and Chahal were bowling in tandem for the first time in their careers as both try to stay relevant. The likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar and Washington Sundar are all in the race to be India’s lead spinners with the white ball.
Everything seemed to be falling in place when Rahul tossed the ball to Ashwin in the 12th over. The little bite off the pitch was enough for Ashwin to settle into a Test-match line and length. He deceived Quinton de Kock in the air off his third ball only for Shreyas Iyer to shell it at point. He kept tossing the ball up before firing in an arm ball to rattle de Kock’s stumps. However, the sweep disrupted the line and length of both spinners. India didn’t get any wickets in the middle overs.
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