Harsha Bhogle feels Ravindra Jadeja was the deserving Man of the Match in the semi-final

In a highly anticipated semi-final encounter, underdogs New Zealand outclassed India to emerge as the first semi-finalists of the World Cup 2019. Team India was highly dominant throughout the bowling innings, but skipper Kane Williamson always had other plans. He judged the pitch well and rightly anticipated it to be a low-scoring pitch, where 240 would be a safe total. Everyone expected this target to be a lot easier, but it turned out to be quite the opposite.

The Indian top-order, which had been a headache for every team, failed to deliver at a big stage. The trio of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli scored a run each, which turned out to be a defining point in the context of the match. Even after their dismissals, the middle order tried to put up partnerships, but the Kiwis made inroads at regular intervals. India lost four wickets in the powerplay itself and were always behind in the game.

However, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja put together an excellent 116-runs-stand to help the team stage a comeback, after the team was reeling at 92/6. Jadeja, in particular, was the standout performer as he produced boundaries at regular intervals, and never let the pressure fall on his partner. Till the time he was out there in the middle, Team India was well in the game.

Jadeja’s 59-ball-77 wasn’t his only contribution to the match. The all-rounder produced some wicket-taking turn and conceded only 34 runs in his quota of 10 overs. He got the wicket of Henry Nicholas with a cracker of delivery, that spun back into the left-hander. When the match resumed on the reserve day, he was again in the middle of the action. Jaddu first inflicted a run-out of Ross Taylor, with a direct throw from a distance of 29 meters and then pulled off a stunner catch to dismiss Tom Latham on the very next ball.

Bhogle hails Jadeja

Matt Henry who wreck havoc in his first spell was given the Man of the Match award as he finished with figures of 10-1-37-3.  However, Harsha Bhogle who was commentating in the game felt that it was only the convention of giving MoM award to a player from the winning team that prevented Jadeja from getting the award. Playing his second match of this World Cup, he alone kept the team alive with his 3-dimensional performance.

“It is convention to give the player of the match award to someone from the winning side. Matt Henry was fantastic today but the performance of the match came from Ravindra Jadeja. He is my player of the match,” tweeted Bhogle.