Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has finally got his batting form back with an unbeaten century and helped his team Saurashtra to register a four-wicket win over Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Sunday.  Batting at number four, Jadeja smashed a 116-ball century as he scored 113* runs with the help of seven fours and four sixes, as Saurashtra chased down Jharkhand’s 330-run target with 10 balls to spare.

Saurashtra skipper Cheteshwar Pujara also returned among runs as he scored 44 off 54 balls with the help of six boundaries. He also stitched a 73-run partnership with Jadeja at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad.  The southpaw all-rounder also shared 114 runs with Chirag Jani (59) and played the finisher’s role pretty aptly, taking his team over the line in 48.2 overs, as Saurashtra got back to the winning ways and remained in the hunt for a quarterfinal berth.

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Chasing a target of 330 runs, Robin Uthappa and Samarth Vyas gave Saurashtra an expected start by compiling a 55-run stand for the first wicket. But the two openers were sent back to the dressing room in quick succession before Cheteshwar Pujara and Jadeja took the onus on themselves and steadied the ship for their team.

Jharkhand was back in the game when the in-form Prerak Mankad was beaten in flight to be caught and bowled by offie Utkarsh Singh to reduce Saurashtra to 150 for four in 24.2 overs.

Jadeja rotated the strike cleverly by taking easy singles with some lusty blows. He was no doubt lucky as he was dropped twice on 51 and 52 – but being brave helped him to turn his fortunes around and even that resulted in some insult to the injury for the Jharkhand bowler as smashed the winning boundary as well.

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Pujara was dismissed for 44 by Shahbaz Nadeem but Jadeja stayed at the crease to take his team over the line. Apart from Ravindra Jadeja and Pujara, Jani also chipped in with some runs and his half-century proved crucial in the end.

Brief scores:

Jharkhand: 329/9 in 50 overs (Ishan Kishan 93, Sumit Kumar 64) defeated by Saurashtra: 333/6 in 48.2 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 113 not out, Chirag Jani 59) by four wickets.