Team India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja said that Steve Smith’s wicket was the turning point in the all-important India vs Australia 2023 World Cup match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, October 8. However, India beat the Aussies by six wickets in the match. Batting first after having won the toss, Australia were bowled out for 199, a target India chased down in 41.2 overs as well. Notably, Australia were in a good place at 110/2 after 27 overs. However, Jadeja clean-bowled Smith (46 off 71) to trigger a batting collapse soon after as well.
Speaking at a post-match press conference following India’s victory, Jadeja said, “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 wicket was the turning point. From there onwards, they were 110/3 and 199 all out.”
While talking about his excellent spell, he shared that his plan was to keep things simple and bowl stump to stump because the surface was more like a Test wicket as well.
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“This was my plan, that I should bowl at the stumps and luckily the ball to Smith turned a little more. 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.”
However, apart from Smith, Jadeja also dismissed Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey in one over to register excellent figures of 3/28. Pacer Jasprit Bumrah and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav also picked up two wickets each. Later, while chasing 200, India got off to a dismal start, losing Ishan Kishan, skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer for ducks. They were 2/3 after two overs when KL Rahul and Virat Kohli added 165 for the fourth wicket to help India win.
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“When you’re three wickets down in just a couple of overs, you obviously panic a little bit. But we know Virat and Rahul, they’ve been doing it for the team for so many years. So, I think nobody was too hyper or panicked at that time. But yeah, luckily, they played brilliantly, they know the conditions well and they took the game forward till the last so I think that was amazing to see,” Ravindra Jadeja concluded.
India will next play against Afghanistan in Delhi on Wednesday, October 11 before facing Pakistan on October 14.
