Chennai Super Kings opener Faf du Plessis pointed out on Sunday that Ravindra Jadeja has been practicing six-hitting quite a lot in training sessions and his last-over onslaught against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL 2021 meeting on Sunday was “no fluke”.
Faf du Plessis said Ravindra Jadeja’s batting has improved a lot over the years and his six-hitting spree against Harshal Patel at the Wankhede Stadium turned the game in CSK’s favour.
Jadeja equalled the record for the most runs hit in a single over by a batsman as he smashed as many as 5 sixes and a boundary against Harshal. 37 runs came from the last over as CSK went from 154 for 4 to 191 in a span of 6 deliveries.
Jadeja was promoted higher up the order by MS Dhoni who watched the onslaught from the non-striker’s end in the final over. 191 proved too much in the end for RCB who managed just 122 for 9 in 20 overs after the left-arm spinner picked up 3 wickets, including that of AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell.
“It was very good. Obviously, Jadeja has been playing really well this season, I think his batting has improved a lot. And there is no fluke, what happened in that last over. Jadeja hits a lot of sixes in his practice session,” du Plessis told the press after CSK’s 69-run win.
Jadeja has made a fine start to IPL 2021 after having joined Chennai Super Kings following a long injury lay-off. Jadeja missed the Test and white-ball series against England at home after picking up a finger injury during India’s famous 2-1 Test series win in Australia earlier this year.
However, Jadeja has contributed with the bat and ball as well as with his fielding skills as Chennai are on top of the points table with 4 wins from 5 matches.
Du Plessis heaped rich praise on Jadeja, the fielder, adding he even tells his South Africa teammates to be careful when taking on the India superstar on the field.
“I have always thought, playing against Jadeja, he has always been the most dangerous fielder. So, when South Africa is playing India, we always talk about being very careful, about running twos to Jadeja on a boundary because he has got an absolute cannon of an arm,” du Plessis said.
