Faf du Plessis said Ravindra Jadeja’s batting has improved considerably over the years and his good form in the season augurs well for Chennai Super Kings who is on top of the points table after defeating RCB.
Chennai Super Kings opener Faf du Plessis pointed out on Sunday that Ravindra Jadeja has been practicing six-hitting quite a lot in training sessions and so his last-over onslaught against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL 2021 meeting on Sunday was “no fluke”.
Faf du Plessis: Ravindra Jadeja’s Batting Has Improved A Lot As He Hits A Lot Of Sixes At Nets
Faf du Plessis said Ravindra Jadeja’s batting has improved a lot over the years and his six-hitting spree against Harshal Patel at the Wankhede Stadium turned the game in CSK’s favour. Ravindra Jadeja equalled the record for the most runs hit in a single over by a batsman as he smashed as many as 5 sixes and a boundary against Harshal Patel. Well, 37 runs came from the last over as CSK went from 154 for 4 to 191 in a span of 6 deliveries.
Ravindra Jadeja was promoted higher up the order by MS Dhoni who watched the onslaught from the non-striker’s end in the final over. The target of 192 proved to be a daunting ask for RCB who managed just 122 for 9 in 20 overs after the left-arm spinner picked up 3 wickets, including that of AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell.
“It was very good. Obviously, Jadeja has been playing really well this season, I think his batting has improved a lot. And there is no fluke, what happened in that last over. Jadeja hits a lot of sixes in his practice session,” du Plessis told the press after CSK’s 69-run win.
“So, obviously for us, that was a huge momentum shift. Till that point, it was pretty much a par-score around 160-165 and the great innings towards the end made a total probably a little bit too much on a slower wicket,” he added.
Ravindra Jadeja has made a fine start to IPL 2021 after having joined Chennai Super Kings following a long injury lay-off. He missed the Test and subsequent white-ball series against England at home after picking up a finger injury and had undergone surgery during India’s famous 2-1 Test series win in Australia earlier this year.
Faf Du Plessis Warns Protea Teammates To Be Careful While Playing Against Fielder Ravindra Jadeja
However, Ravindra Jadeja has contributed with the bat and ball as well as with his fielding skills as Chennai is on top of the points table with 4 wins from 5 matches. Faf Du Plessis heaped rich praise on Ravindra Jadeja, the fielder, adding he even tells his South Africa teammates to be careful when taking on the India superstar on the field.
“I have always thought, playing against Jadeja, he has always been the most dangerous fielder. So, when South Africa is playing India, we always talk about being very careful, about running twos to Jadeja on a boundary because he has got an absolute cannon of an arm,” du Plessis said.
After having won 4 out of their 5 matches in Mumbai, CSK will travel to New Delhi for their next leg of IPL 2021 matches. They face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
MOM Ravindra Jadeja grabbed headlines by scoring 62* off 28 balls, picking 3 scalps conceding only 13 runs, and effecting a run-out as his all-round show saw CSK winning the game against RCB quite comfortable despite RCB having the likes of Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers in their ranks.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings: 191/4 (Ravindra Jadeja 62*, Faf du Plessis 50; Harshal Patel 3/51) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 122/9 (Devdutt Padikkal 34, Glenn Maxwell 22; Ravindra Jadeja 3/13) by 69 runs.