Ravindra Jadeja was the only recognized batter left with Jasprit Bumrah when India were chasing 193. India were tattering at 112/8 when Jadeja and Bumrah got together. However, through patience and grit, Jadeja managed to build a partnership with Bumrah and Siraj later to take India closer to the target. Although both Bumrah and Siraj fell, Jadeja remained unbeaten till the end as India lost the game by 22 runs.
“Coming to the final moments, Ravindra Jadeja is someone I’ve known since his U-19 days at the National Cricket Academy. Even back then, he showed maturity beyond his age. He’s a smart cricketer, calm under pressure, but this time, maybe the fear of failing, or the pressure of not trusting the tail, got the better of him,” Former India cricketer Balwinder Singh Sandhu in his Mid-Day column.
“If only he had trusted Jasprit Bumrah a bit more – especially when Bumrah was defending so well – and resisted taking that single off the fourth ball to retain strike. Had he backed himself to finish it in those last two balls, with the field up, it was a perfect moment to go for the boundary,” he added.
Another Indian cricketer, Cheteshwar Pujara, supported Jadeja. “He couldn’t have scored faster on that track. I felt that it was because the ball was soft, and the pitch was on the slower side. I guess, Jadeja would have thought that the tailenders were batting well and the team was getting close to the total. And once they were a little closer he would have taken his chances. I thought he was batting well. It was very difficult to score runs on that pitch,” says Pujara.
“The only thing he could have done better is to look to score down the ground. Like there was a gap between mid-off and cover,” Pujara said Jadeja could have done differently.
