Jadeja became the first CSK player and 10th player overall to score over 50 runs and take three or more wickets in an IPL innings as he finished with figures of 62* off 28 and 3/13 from four overs in a match against RCB
In a team that was once packed with all-rounders like Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, and Dwayne Bravo, Ravi Jadeja did not get enough exposure to show his full range. When he had a few balls at his disposal, coming out to bat at number five in a match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, he did what he does best.
Jadeja blasted 62 runs off just 28 balls with four fours and five sixes, batting at a strike rate of 221.43. It was his heroics in the last over of the CSK innings, in which he pumped Harshal Patel for 37 runs, which propped up Chennai’s total to over 190. Doing so, he also equalled the highest number of runs scored in a single over in the IPL.
Jadeja then expressed himself with the ball as well on a Mumbai pitch that had something in it for the spinners as the ball was gripping and stopping a bit. Jadeja bowled his four overs for just 13 runs, including one maiden over, and picked up three wickets while bowling at an economy rate of 3.20.
The all-rounder castled both Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers in almost identical fashion and also ran out Daniel Christian to end RCB’s hopes of a comeback.
Ravindra Jadeja, Player of the Match, was all smiles after CSK won the match by a massive margin of 69 runs.
“I don’t think I have had a better day. When you contribute for your team in a winning match, it means a lot. I have been working a lot on my fitness, skill and everything else, luckily, it paid off today. It’s tough as an all-rounder, you’ll have to do well in all departments – while training, I don’t do all the three things (batting, bowling and fielding practice) on the same day. I work on my skills one day and my fitness on the next day – that’s how I manage my workload. I was looking to hit hard in the last over, Mahibhai told me he (Harshal) will be bowling somewhere outside the off-stump and I was ready for that.”
It is hard to think whether any player has had a more enormous all-round impact in a single IPL match.
So far, Jadeja has appeared in 229 IPL matches. The player has accumulated 2,795 runs, maintaining an average of 26.65 and a strike rate of 128.81. At the time of drafting this article (April 3), Jadeja has hit 196 fours, 100 sixes, and two half-centuries. With the ball, Jadeja has scalped 153 wickets with a best figure of 5/16 and an economy of 7.61.
