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On Saturday, September 27, Indian leg spinner Rahul Chahar registered spectacular figures of 8-51 in the second innings to help Surrey defeat Hampshire by 20 runs in the County Championship Division One clash at The Rose Bowl in Southampton. The 26-year-old picked up the eighth and final wicket of his spell, dismissing James Fuller at the start of day four of the contest with Ben Foakes taking a smart catch behind the stumps, to ensure that Surrey got the victory by a narrow margin.
In pursuit of the 181-run target in a low-scoring County Championship Division One match, Hampshire made an impressive start with their openers Ali Orr and Fletcha Middleton sharing a 61-run stand. But, from that point onwards, it was the Rahul Chahar show at The Rose Bowl, starting with Middleton getting cleaned up by him for 18 off 48 before Tony Albert suffered the same fate at the start of his innings in the middle.
Rahul Chahar picked up his first 10-wicket match haul in first-class career
At the other end, Dan Lawrence picked up a couple of wickets, to help reduce Hampshire to 94-4 before Rahul Chahar shattered the stumps of well set Ali Orr for 48 off 96, which was his third wicket of the spell. It led to Chahar running through the middle to lower order of Hampshire, to pick up his eighth five-wicket haul in the first-class career and play a key role in bundling out the hosts for 160 runs in their second innings.
There were seven maidens in the 25 overs bowled by Rahul Chahar for 8-51, the best figures in his first-class career apart from it being Surrey’s third best in the 21st century. Chahar had also picked up two wickets in the first innings of Hampshire earlier, which meant that he got 10 wickets in a first-class match for the first-time in his career, and it is expected to put him in contention for a spot in the Indian Test team in the near future.
Despite the positive result, Surrey won’t be able to put their hands on the County Championship after their three-year reign was ended by Nottinghamshire just a few days ago.
