Amid criticism and trolling for his batting in ODIs, Ravindra Jadeja was the starman for India with the ball in their World Cup 2023 opener against Australia in Chennai.
The Chepauk pitch played as it was expected and as it was hyped up by everyone: 6 of the 10 Australian wickets to fall went to spinners and all six of them occurred in the middle-overs, which allowed India to bowl Australia out for 199.
Australia were 74/1 and it seems that David Warner and Steve Smith would bed in and bat big. Bult first Kuldeep Yadav broke that stand with the left-hander’s wicket, and then Ravindra Jadeja ran through the middle-order with the wickets of Steve Smith, Alex Carey, and Marnus Labuschagne to turn the momentum in India’s favor.
Kuldeep took two wickets in all and R Ashwin picked one scalp. Pacers Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya shared 4 wickets between them as India bowled the Aussies out for 199, which seemed an under-par score even for this tough batting surface.
The wicket of Smith was a classical Ravindra Jadeja dismissal: the ball pitching on off and straightening to beat Smith’s outside edge and clattering into the top of the off-stump.
Jadeja finished with fantastic figures of 10-2-28-3, a Man of the Match-worthy performance unless Australia defend this total.
Ravindra Jadeja reasons playing under MS Dhoni for CSK in Chennai as his secret of success today
Interestingly, there was an MS Dhoni and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) connection which Jadeja revealed in his taking the three wickets today and performing well. Speaking after the end of Australia’s innings, Jadeja said that it was while playing for CSK in Chennai under MS Dhoni that helped him today, because he understood the conditions better than anyone, and assessed the perfect length to bowl on this kind of surface.
Ravindra Jadeja told Star Sports; “I play for CSK so I know the conditions here, when I saw the pitch I thought I should get 2-3 wickets, luckily I got 3 wickets and am very happy. I was looking to bowl into the stumps and there was turn, you never know which one is going straight and which one is turning, the odd ball was turning and I was just mixing the pace.”
