Yuzvendra Chahal, MS Dhoni's Wrecker-in-Chief vs Zimbabwe

Yuzvendra Chahal is making full use of his limited international exposure to add to Team India's spin wealth. The former junior international chess player finished Man of the Match for his three wickets for 25 that broke the back of Zimbabwe's batting in Harare on Monday.

Leg-spinner Chahal bowled 23 dot balls in a six-over spell to restrict Zimbabwe to a paltry 126 all out. India cruised to an eight-wicket victory to clinch the three-match One-Day International series. India had won the series opener at Harare Sports Club on Saturday by nine wickets.

Chahal, an established name in the IPL, used his intelligence well against the Zimbabwean batsmen. Pushing 26, the Haryana lad took 1 for 26 on his debut, but looked more in control on Monday.

Unlike his Ranji teammate Amit Mishra, who gives the ball a lot of air, Chahal's faster deliveries can fox batsmen. On Monday, he bowled one delivery seam up at 109 kmph to restrict a free-hit to just one run.   

"I enjoyed bowling, the wicket was a bit slow. The day before, the Zimbabwe batsmen were not going after me and were a bit defensive, today they were attacking me so I got wickets.

"I was looking to bowl a stump-to-stump line and Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) also asked me to bowl slow through the air," Chahal said after the match.

All three Chahal wickets were big scalps. Vusi Sibanda (53), Sikandar Raza (16) and Elton Chigumbura (0) all fell to Chahal. Raza and Sibanda put on 67 for the fourth wicket after Zimbabwe collapsed to 39 for three in the 10th over after Dhoni won the toss and decided to field.

Dhoni was all praise for his bowlers.

"Our bowlers did a great job to restrict them, I felt they would cross 200 and our spinners got us important breakthroughs," the captain said.

The Zimbabwe innings was hampered by the loss of batsman Sean Williams, who injured his finger between the toss and the start of the match and did not bat.

The final match of the ODI series will be staged on Wednesday, after which the teams will play three Twenty20 matches starting on Saturday.