Venkatesh Prasad gives brickbat to Greg Chappell for writing off Deepak Chahar

Former Team India medium-pacer Venkatesh Prasad has heaped praise on pacer Deepak Chahar after he successfully anchored the Indian chase against Sri Lanka in the second ODI at R Premadasa Stadium on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Venkatesh Prasad has also spoken about how one of the former coaches of the national cricket team had written off Deepak Chahar.

Venkatesh Prasad gives special mention to Deepak Chahar, thumbs down to Greg Chappell

Taking to the micro-blogging site, 'Venky' posted an image of Deepak Chahar exchanging fist bumps with vice-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar after the duo helped India get past the finish line. Venkatesh Prasad then wrote that Deepak Chahar was rejected by the controversial Greg Chappell at the Rajasthan Cricket Academy (RCA) for his height and the latter had also asked the then-emerging cricketer to look at a different occupation.

Prasad then lauded Deepak Chahar for not only proving Greg Chappell wrong but also for winning an important match for his team single-handedly with not even his primary skills.

The ex-cricketer from Bangalore concluded by mentioning ' Believe in yourself and don't take overseas coaches too seriously'.

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man

Deepak Chahar mattered for Team India when it mattered the most. The Men In Blue looked down and out when the scorecard read 193/7 in only the 36th over with just the tail-enders to follow. Sri Lanka smelled victory at that point but the lower-order duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar showed a great amount of grit & determination as they kept India in the hunt courtesy of their 'never-say-die' attitude.

Both Bhuvneshwar and Deepak counter-attacked as the Sri Lankan bowlers ran out of fire & brimstone towards the backend of the innings and were hit to all parts of the ground. Eventually, the Lankan bowlers failed to rediscover their rhythm as the tail-ender batsmen made a difficult run chase look pretty easy by registering their respective half-centuries.

The match went right down to the wire. However, it could not go all the way down to the final ball as Deepak Chahar's boundary over the mid-wicket fielder on the very first delivery of the final over bowled by pacer Kasun Rajitha sealed the deal in India's favor as they successfully clinched the three-match ODI series.

Deepak Chahar remained unbeaten on 69. He was brilliant with the ball in hand as well as he chipped in with a couple of wickets earlier in the day. Chahar's scalps included Dhananjaya de Silva and Wanindu Hasaranga. He finished his spell with figures of 2/53 from his eight overs at an economy rate of 6.63.

The elder Chahar was also adjudged the Man of the Match award for his match-winning performance on the 22 yards.