Yuzvendra Chahal signs off for Northamptonshire with 19 county wickets

Yuzvendra Chahal ended his county championship stint with another 5-wicket haul as Northamptonshire secured a dominant nine-wicket victory over Leicestershire.

In Short

• Chahal finished with 9 wickets in the match
• Northants won the match by 9 wickets
• Chahal had a successful stint with Northants

Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal delivered another standout performance in the English County Championship, taking five wickets for the second match in a row to help Northamptonshire secure a dominant nine-wicket victory over Leicestershire.

Building on his 4/82 in the first innings, Chahal claimed 5/134 in the second, giving him a nine-wicket haul for the match. Leicestershire were bowled out for 316, setting Northants a modest target of 137, which they chased down in 30.3 overs, losing only Gus Miller (11). Skipper Luke Procter (68*) and George Bartlett (54*) led the charge to seal the win.

Leicestershire began the final day at 69/4 but mounted a recovery thanks to Scott Currie’s brilliant century (120) and Tom Scriven’s fighting 48. The duo shared an aggressive 110-run stand, with Chahal enduring a costly 19-run over during the partnership. However, the leg-spinner broke through, dismissing Currie for his fifth wicket to leave Leicestershire struggling at 303/9. Their innings ended soon after, with Saif Zaib (2/61) removing Louis Kimber.

Chahal’s magic followed up on his stellar performance in the previous match, where he took 5/45 and 4/45 in Northants' 133-run victory over Derbyshire. This meant that Chahal ended his stint with the County side with a total of 19 wickets.

Chahal gets all the love at Northamptonshire

Chahal had joined the team right after the T20 World Cup and started off with a 5-wicket haul in a List A game against Kent in the Royal One Day Cup. After this he played 4 county championship matches, where would pick 19 wickets, with 18 of them coming in the last 2 outings.

Chahal's spin partner Rob Keogh said they call the Indian bowler 'the magician.'

"We call him the magician," Keogh said.

"He's got a bag of tricks. Luckily it was too cold for him to get all his tricks out. So he said he just stuck to the flipper a few times and that got him a few wickets. Obviously, everyone knows what he can do, including the opposition. They are expecting him to bowl big turners and he pulls out the flipper," he added.

Chahal will now be hoping to be in the mix for the Bangladesh T20I series.

*With inputs from PTI*