Chahal took nine wickets and bowled Ben Stokes, and Northamptonshire were bowled out for 50
Yuzvendra Chahal finished with 9 for 120 at Northampton, including the wicket of Ben Stokes, and still lost by 153 runs after Northamptonshire were dismissed for 50 chasing 204.
Sep 5, 2026
Northamptonshire needed 204 to beat the team above them in Division Two. They were all out for 50 inside 22.2 overs, and the last man out was the bowler who had just taken nine wickets in the match.
Yuzvendra Chahal finished with 4 for 36 in Durham’s first innings and 5 for 84 in the second, match figures of 9 for 120 from 42.1 overs at the County Ground. He bowled Ben Stokes for 14 on the second day. He came back on the final morning of the four-day game and took the last three Durham wickets for 15 runs. None of it was enough.
Bowled out before lunch
Durham were 246 for 7 overnight and added only 15 more, closing on 261 and setting Northamptonshire 204. It fell apart at once.
Ricardo Vasconcelos was stumped for 5 in the second over. Luke Procter went lbw at 17. Inside 12 overs Northamptonshire were 27 for 6, having lost Nathan McSweeney, Saif Zaib, Calvin Harrison and George Bartlett for a combined 12 runs. Louis Kimber top-scored with 8, and nobody else passed 7.
Callum Parkinson did most of the damage with 6 for 20 from 11 overs, three of them maidens. Matthew Potts took 2 for 13 and Stokes 2 for 9 from 4.2 overs, finishing it by having Chahal caught by David Bedingham. Durham won by 153 runs with more than two sessions to spare.
What Chahal actually did
The Stokes dismissal is the clip that will travel. Chahal came round the wicket, gave it air outside off, and the ball turned back through the gate to hit the top of off stump. Stokes had come forward to defend it and had no answer.
The rest of the return was less spectacular and more useful. In the second innings Chahal bowled 26.5 overs and removed Alex Lees for 80, David Bedingham for 5, Potts, Parkinson and Ollie Robinson. Lees, the Durham captain, had made 80 from 144 balls and was the one batter properly set before Chahal bowled him. Without those five wickets the target would have been a good deal larger than 204.
Chahal has not played for India in three years
His last T20I for India came in August 2023 against West Indies, his last ODI in January 2023 against New Zealand. He took 217 wickets across the two white-ball formats and then stopped being picked. This is his third consecutive summer at Northamptonshire, and he joined for the second half of the season to play Championship cricket and the One-Day Cup.
Nine wickets in a match at 36 is not a comeback argument on its own. India’s white-ball spin stocks are deep and the selectors have moved on. It does show that a leg-spinner with 217 international wickets is still taking top-order batters out on a length, three years after the last time anyone in Indian selection needed to think about him.
Durham are running away with Division Two
Durham have played 11, won eight, lost none, and sit on 210 points. Northamptonshire are second on 155, one point ahead of Kent, with three rounds left. Durham have now beaten Northamptonshire twice this season, by six wickets in June and by 153 runs here.
Northamptonshire took four points from the match. Durham took 19. For a side chasing promotion, being bowled out for 50 at home is the kind of result that costs more than the points column shows.