Ace India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal started off the 2023-24 Vijay Hazare Trophy on a high, picking a six-for for Haryana against Uttarakhand in Ahmedabad today (November 23).
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India’s premier List A tournament, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, started today (November 23) with the first round of fixtures being played across the country.
Yuzvendra Chahal, playing for his home state Haryana, snapped up six wickets in his first match of the season. Playing against Uttarakhand at the ADSA Railways Cricket Ground in Ahmedabad, Haryana won the toss and elected to field first.
Next stop: Vijay Hazare Trophy 🏆
All set for tomorrow ⚡ pic.twitter.com/rhHTMBG9oS— Yuzvendra Chahal (@yuzi_chahal) November 22, 2023
Kunal Chandela and Jiwanjot Singh took Uttarakhand off to a good start, adding 60 runs for the first wicket, before a stunning collapse saw them fall to 100-5. Former Mumbai Indians wicketkeeper Aditya Tare then hung around with the lower middle order to resurrect the innings with a 68-ball 65. They were eventually bowled out for 207 in 47.4 overs.
The story of the innings, however, was Chahal’s six-for. The India leg-spinner came in as the fifth bowler and got his first wicket in the 18th over, when he trapped Jiwanjot in front of the wicket. He took two more wickets in that spell, those of Swapnil Singh in the 23rd over and Dikshanshu Negi in the 25th to reduce Uttarakhand to 100-5.
Chahal wasn’t done though. In the 41st over, he snared two wickets before taking that of Tare in the 47th to spark a late collapse which saw Uttarakhand go from 207-7 to 207 all out.
Chahal finished with figures of 10-2-26-6, coming close to registering his best figures in List A cricket (6-24).
Yuzvendra Chahal 6 WICKETS! (9.5-2-26-6), Uttarakhand 207/8 #HARvCAU #VijayHazareTrophy
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) November 23, 2023
Chahal’s performance is specially significant since it comes on the back of an India snub. BCCI announced the Indian squad which will face Australia for a five-match T20I series starting today (November 23) one day after the 2023 World Cup final. Chahal, India’s highest wicket-taker in the shortest format, wasn’t included with Ravi Bishnoi preferred over him.
He reacted to the exclusion with a cryptic post on social media, and has now responded to it on the field with a strong performance.
