World Cup 2019: Three reasons why India defeated South Africa 

#2 Indian spinners’ mastery in the middle-overs

Yuzvendra Chahal

South Africa had no answer to India’s spin mastery on Wednesday. The duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav shared five wickets between them, while conceding less than a 100 runs from their combined 20 overs.

As mentioned, the Proteas were 24-2 at an early stage.

Faf du Plessis (38 runs) and Rassie van der Dussen (22) managed to re-group with a partnership of 56 after the early wickets. Just when they looked set, van der Dussen lost his wicket. Chahal bowled the batsman around his legs after the latter attempted a reverse-sweep. This was only the start of South Africa’s woeful batting against India’s spinners.

Still in the 20th over, Chahal bowled du Plessis with a beautifully-flighted ball. JP Duminy was trapped LBW nine runs later, this time by Kuldeep Yadav, and South Africa was in a mess at 89-5.

Chahal took the next two wickets as well to end up with figures of 4-51 from 10 overs.