On last Wednesday (1st May) night, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) cricketer Ravindra Jadeja played an important all-rounder role for his team to comfortably beat Delhi Capitals (DC) at Chennai. After that match, he credited his captain MS Dhoni for his success.
When the home team CSK was under pressure in the first innings, Jadeja played a crucial role along with Dhoni to set a good total. Jadeja came to the crease when the set batsman Suresh Raina (59 runs) lost his wicket and CSK was battling on 102/3 in 14.5 overs.
Soon, Jadeja and Dhoni put a crucial 43-run partnership off 22 balls for the fourth wicket that helped the side to manage a challenging total. The left-handed batsman Jadeja scored 25 runs off just ten balls with two boundaries and two over-boundaries. He and Dhoni (44* runs off 22 balls) guided CSK to manage 179/4 (20 overs) on the board.
Later, he bowled brilliantly in the second innings that helped them to restrict DC to just 99 runs (16.2 overs). Jadeja was the second best bowler in that match after their leg-spinner Imran Tahir (3.2-0-12-4). During that match, the left-arm Indian spinner Jadeja had the impressive bowling figures of 3-0-9-3.
After that match, Jadeja revealed how the CSK skipper MS Dhoni helped him to achieve success in batting.
Jadeja told the CSK pacer Mohit Sharma in the IPL website, “He (MS Dhoni) keeps telling me about the areas bowlers are going to bowl to me. He checks the field placements and also tells me about which part of the ground I can target. This is what we were communicating during that partnership.”
Ravindra Jadeja revealed how he managed to play big shots in death overs
Though Jadeja has got limited opportunities, he has played some decent roles in the ongoing IPL 2019. The left-arm spinner has taken 12 wickets in 12 matches with an average of 22.83 and economy rate of 6.37. Meanwhile, the middle-order batsman has also scored 101 runs in eight innings (average 33.66 and strike-rate 121.68).
Talking about his big shots in the crucial death overs, Jadeja credited his practising style.
He said, “It’s important to have strength in your body but I have been practicing well. These days I practice keeping match situations in mind and that helps to hit those big shots during crucial junctures of the match.”
The ball was turning when I came out to bowl my first over – Ravindra Jadeja
CSK spinners dominated during their latest match against DC as they bagged a total of eight wickets. Talking about his bowling success in this match, Jadeja pointed out his constant tight bowling performance.
He added, “The ball was turning when I came out to bowl my first over. If there was turn on the surface, it was important for me to keep bowling on stumps as it would make life difficult for all their batsmen.
“Everytime the new batsmen came out, I kept bowling on stumps and it wasn’t easy for them. All our spinner kept hitting the right line and length and that led to their middle-order collapse. The outfield was dry and that helped as well.”
The three-time IPL champions CSK has already qualified for the IPL 2019 playoffs. After their latest 80 runs victory against DC, CSK is on top of the IPL 2019 points table. After playing 13 matches this season, CSK has earned 18 points (won nine matches and lost four matches).