IPL 2018: Kedar Jadhav unsure of his future in the tournament

Chennai Super Kings were making a comeback and so was MS Dhoni as a skipper. He hadn’t led his Indian Premier League (IPL) side last season and stepped down as the Indian ODI and T20I captain in 2017. There was an amazing support for the Men in Yellow at the Wankhede that is always covered Blue. The crowd got their money’s worth as Kedar Jadhav crashed the penultimate ball through covers to win the match for his team.

Jadhav didn’t have an exceptional start with the bat. They were chasing and after playing 17 balls for 14 runs he had to go off the field retired hurt having hurt his hamstring. Their chase was going haywire until a certain Dwayne Bravo decided to turn the course of the match on its head. His 30-ball 68 was quite a knock to play in the first match of the tournament against the death bowling attack that is led by Jasprit Bumrah.

Hit a six when it mattered the most

But Bravo got out when CSK still needed 7 runs to win. Jadhav had to walk back to the middle and he couldn’t even run for a single. He trusts his muscle power and also his ability to outsmart the bowler. It was Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman – he had 6 deliveries to a semi-injured player who was only there because he had to.

He couldn’t run the doubles, the only way they could get over the line was with boundaries. Jadhav played the first three balls, he understood what the bowler was trying to do there and then just scooped one over the head of the fine-leg fielder for a huge six that made the CSK players jump out of their seats.

They still needed one to win from two balls and Rohit Sharma got all his players inside the circle. But Mustafizur bowled another length delivery and he thrashed it through the off-side and the entire CSK dressing room and dugout was jumping in joy and so were their fans. The Mumbai crowd was roaring CSK…CSK that tells us more about the kind of following this team has.

After the conclusion of the match Kedar accepted that the injury will keep him out of action for a while but when his team needed someone to delivery he did it.

Talking about his knock and the injury Jadhav said, “I might not play for the next couple of weeks. Bravo gave us the opportunity for us to give a shot at it. I could not run and I told Immy [Imran Tahir] I will take all six balls. With six balls and seven runs, they were bowling same lengths and I just needed a big hit. I had to see how my body was reacting.”

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