Discarded India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took six wickets in the first innings for Northamptonshire against Derbyshire in the County Championship Division Two clash today (July 30).
Yuzvendra Chahal takes career-best County Championship figures
Derbyshire opted to bat first after winning the toss at the County Ground in Northampton. They lost Caleb Jewell early at the score of 34, before Luis Reece (39) and Harry Came (17) added 48 for the second wicket. Yuzvendra Chahal got into the thick of things by trapping Came lbw with a beauty that pitched on leg stump and struck Came's back leg on middle and off.
On the last ball of the same over, he got Reece caught at short leg, trying to advance down the track and flick a ball into the leg side. Chahal continued his devastating run, getting No.5 Brooke Guest to edge one behind to the wicketkeeper in his next over. Liam Guthrie then dismissed opposition captain Wayne Madsen seven balls later to reduce Derbyshire to 89-5.
Aneurin Donald (37) and Martin Anderson (105) rescued the visitors, adding 102 for the sixth wicket. Three of Derbyshire's bottom four went past 30 as they recovered to post a competitive 377.
Also read: India fast bowler returns home two matches into lengthy UK county stint
Chahal accounted for three of the last four wickets to fall, which included two catches to slip and one chop-on. The Indian leggie finished with figures of 6-118 from 33.2 overs. This was his second six-wicket haul in first-class cricket, the last one having come nine years back in 2016 in a Ranji Trophy game for Haryana.
Match 98, Northamptonshire vs Derbyshire
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In county cricket, these are now Chahal's best figures. He has now has 10 wickets at 47.30 from three matches this season. Chahal has two more five-fors to his name for Northamptonshire, both having come in the 2024 County Championship season. One of those was against the same opponents - Derbyshire (5-45), while another was against Leicestershire (5-134). Before that, Chahal represented Kent in four County Championship games in 2023.
Before the ongoing match, the India leg-spinner had played 43 first-class games, picking up 119 wickets at 35.63. He is yet to play Test cricket for India, but has represented them in 72 ODIs and 80 T20Is, taking 121 and 96 wickets respectively.
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