Experienced all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja showed his class and his stunning improvement with the bat has convinced his Chennai Super Kings captain, MS Dhoni, to give him “those extra deliveries” that changed the game as well. Jadeja nearly single-handedly beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 69 runs as Jadeja smashed 62* off 28 balls and also claimed three wickets and was involved in a run-out too.
“Jaddu is somebody who can change the game on his own. In the last few years, we’ve seen significant change in batting and it’s worth it to give him that extra bit of time, extra deliveries,” MS Dhoni said at the post-match presentation when he was asked about Jadeja being sent in at No. 5.
On the other hand, the left-hander Jadeja hit 37 runs off Harshal Patel and he said that it helped them as well.
The player of the match said that he has never had a better day on a cricket field. “Don’t think so (if he had a better day). I’ve been working hard on my fitness, skill, everything. Luckily it paid off. It’s been a tough job being all-rounder, you have to do all departments,” Jadeja said.
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Meanwhile, he shared that MS Dhoni said that Harhal will bowl outside the off-stump and he did that which helped CSK. He continued: “During training, I don’t work on all three, I do skill work one day, training one day, fitness one day. I was just looking to hit it hard. Mahi bhai told me he would bowl somewhere outside off and luckily I connected.”
However, MS Dhoni also said that he felt that no one can predict the score or victory from before but once they went past 190, he knew that they would win the game as well. Meanwhile, he again added that CSK haven’t done anything different from last year, although they had a rather forgettable season where they failed to reach the playoffs for the very first time.
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“It’s a good wicket but I felt the spinners had something up their sleeves and I felt that extra few runs Jadeja made helped. 165 would have been par, and once you get 25 extra the opposition has to come a little harder. You cannot make your strategy on the assumption of what dew will do – frankly, some games have been high scoring, some have been low scoring. You have to assess every game and today we made the right decision to bat. We’re not doing anything drastically different from what we did last year. Me and Fleming, we keep saying that we focus on the process. You gain more respect if you keep following your path when you’re under pressure. I think that is something that gave a lot of confidence to the players. Credit to the players,” MS Dhoni concluded.
