Revealed: What happened to the ball used in the second ODI against South Africa

In the second ODI against South Africa, the skills of wrist spinning duo Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav were on display. Their magical wrist spin outfoxed a second string line up of South Africa as India crushed them with a nine-wicket victory in the second ODI to reclaim the pole position in the ICC rankings in Centurion.

Chahal recorded his career-best ODI figures of 5 for 22 in 8.2 overs and was superbly complemented by Kuldeep (3/20 in 6 overs) who seemed more threatening at one point. Their dominance was evident as none of the Proteas batsmen were able to read them off their hands nor off the pitch. Interestingly Chahal’s figures were best by any Indian bowler on South African soil eclipsing Yuvraj Singh’s 4 for 6 against Namibia at Pietermaritzburg during 2003 World Cup.

BCCI then released a video in which they revealed what happened to the ball used in the game. The bowlers, especially Yuzvendra Chahal, were appreciated by everyone for his amazing performance. In the video that has been released by BCCI they have shown that after the completion of the match, the ball was given as a reward to Chahal. It is said that after a cricket match gets complete, the ball is given as a token of memory to the bowler who performs best.

Here is the video

After the completion of four matches in the six-match-series, India lead 3-1 with the sole defeat coming in the recently concluded 4th ODI in a rain-curtailed match by 5 wickets. It was, in fact, an off-day for Yuzvendra Chahal in particular who was hit for 68 runs in 5.3 overs, picking the wicket of David Miller. Moreover, he conceded two no-balls, and three wides, going over 12.36 runs an over in the crucial match situation.

While Kuldeep was relatively better since he picked two wickets and conceded 51 runs and went for 8.40 runs an over, it was ordinary even by his standards. This match was an exception because of the wrist spinners with collectively scalping 21 wickets in the three matches.