India spinner Ravindra Jadeja was all over the Australian batters in the recent ICC World Cup 2023 clash in Chennai on October 8. India won the match by 6 wickets in an interesting tie.
India was asked to chase a 200-run target by Australia and was reduced to 2/3 in the first two overs with Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer all falling for ducks. But Virat Kohli (85) and KL Rahul (97*) took India to win with their 165-run partnership for the fourth wicket. India won by 6 wickets with 52 balls remaining.
Earlier, Australia had batted first after Pat Cummins won the toss and folded for 199 runs. David Warner with 41 and Steve Smith with 46 were the main scorers, while Ravindra Jadeja with 3/28, and Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah with two wickets each were the best bowlers.
Speaking after the match, Ravindra Jadeja remarked that the wicket of Steve Smith, who was bowled by a beauty of a delivery by the left-arm spinner, was the turning point of the match for India.
“I think that was the turning moment. When you get a wicket like Steve Smith, from there onwards it was not easy to just come in and rotate the strike for the new batter. I would say that the wicket was the turning point. From there onwards, they were 110/3 and 199 all out. This was my plan, that I should bowl at the stumps and luckily the ball to Smith turned a little more,” Jadeja said after-match presser.
“My plan was simple. I was thinking that this is a Test match bowling wicket, I shouldn’t experiment too much because everything was happening in the wicket. So I was trying to bowl it stump to stump,” he added.
Asked about India’s spin trio playing different roles for the team, Jadeja said it was just about getting wickets on a pitch that offered turn.
“There is no specific role. It was about getting as many wickets as quickly as we could,” Jadeja said with a laugh.
Jadeja was also all praises for Virat Kohli and KL Rahul’s knocks. He said: “Three wickets down, there was panic. But we know Virat and Rahul, they have been doing this for the team since so many years. They played brilliantly. They knew the conditions well. It was amazing to see.”
(PTI inputs)
