Star Sports Cricket Live: Spinner Ravindra Jadeja’s superlative bowling effort for Chennai Super Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai has earned him praise from West Indies legend Brian Lara and former India and CSK teammate Ambati Rayudu. Jadeja claimed 3-18 in four overs and with pacers Tushar Deshpande and Mustafizur Rahman claiming 3-33 and 2-22, helped CSK restrict Kolkata Knight Riders to a below-par 137/9. CSK won the match by seven wickets with skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad scoring 67 not out.
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports Cricket Live, Rayudu expressed his views on Jadeja’s bowling performance against KKR. “I think he tries to bowl on the seam. He attempts to get the seam into the wicket and get that grip on the surface. Additionally, he varies his speed. When he bowls to a left-hander, he tries to bowl quick, as he did to Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine. It was wide, it was really fast, and he bowls directly into the wicket. He knows the surface really well and he knows his bowling is now much better than it used to be. He’s a proper all-rounder, and CSK is lucky to have him.”
Lara too shared his thoughts on Jadeja’s bowling performance against KKR and said the spinner knows where to bowl at the Chepauk Stadium pitch.
“When he has the pitch that suits him, it’s difficult. He’s got a very low trajectory of the ball. Also, he bowls so quickly, giving you little time to think about what to do. He finishes his over in under two minutes sometimes. So, he’s at you all the time. But he has a great amount of experience at that cricket ground (Chepauk), and he knows the size of the boundaries, he knows where to bowl the ball. And you see a lot of the guys getting out into the deep, Venkatesh Iyer, even Sunil Narine. So, I think worldwide, he’s a great bowler. But at this particular ground, he’s dangerous when the conditions are in his favour,” Lara told Star Sports on Cricket Live on Monday.
Rayudu was also impressed with CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s performance as he struck 67 not out off 58 balls to help CSK win the match.
“Yeah absolutely, he had time to play his shots, but more importantly he let the ball come, he was playing it under his eyes. And another thing about the wicket is when the dew comes, the wicket gets easy, and that’s what happened last night,” he said.
Speaking exclusively to Star Sports on Cricket Live, Lara spoke on the SRH team’s performance this season. He said, “I think they are a team in the ascendancy, they are playing good cricket and for me, their batting is very strong. I like the fact that the top 3 are getting runs. But more importantly, I think Pat Cummins has brought some performances from the bowlers.
“You can see the bowling plan, bowling the slower balls. And all these guys like Unadkat are bowling really well. And that’s important because you can only win the IPL if you have a good bowling team, and I think they have strengthened that department and are looking really good,” said Lara.
Lara also shared his thoughts on CSK’s performance against KKR, saying, “That was a very clinical performance by CSK. That was the way that CSK has played when they had the best in their game. And coming off those losses, you would think there’s a chance for KKR. But they were clinical. They dominated the game from ball one and wrapped it up quite comfortably. So it’s just great to see them back on track.”
