IPL 2021: Ravindra Jadeja dedicates Player of the Match award to daughter Nidhyana

Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja dedicated his Player of the Match award to daughter Nidhyana on the occasion of Daughters Day, a symbolic celebration practised globally on the fourth Sunday of September every year to acknowledge and empower women.

Jadeja played an instrumental role in Super Kings’ two-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium on September 26, whacking two sixes and as many fours in his 8-ball 22 blitz to turn the match on its head after KKR had put MS Dhoni’s men under pressure during a 172-run chase.

CSK held a firm grip over the contest for the larger part of the innings, but a spate of wickets in the latter half of the their response meant the situation had come down to 25 needed off 10, with four wickets in hands. Jadeja, who earlier shone with the ball, giving merely 21 runs for a wicket in his four overs, smothered Prasidh Krishna in the penultimate over for 6,6,4,4 to leave his team chasing 4 off the last over.

Courtesy of his assault, a victory for the CSK seemed within a touching distance in the face of KKR’s discipline in a few overs preceding the 19th. A final twist in the tale, however, awaited the two sides, with Sunil Narine removing Jadeja in the decisive final over before Deepak Chahar stole a single off the last ball to ensure his teammate’s toil did not go in vain, as CSK recorded a hat-trick of wins apart from reclaiming the pinnacle spot in the points tally.

‘I was just backing my strength’ – Ravindra Jadeja on fateful 19th over

Speaking about his performance post-match, Jadeja, who was a part of India’s 20-member party touring England for the Pataudi Trophy, revealed it was difficult to make adjustments needed for white-ball cricket after plenty of red-ball action lately.

“After you have played five-day cricket and then to come to white-ball cricket, I was working on my bat swing. I wanted to repeat whatever I was doing. The runs in the second-last over turned out to be the match-winning over for us,” Jadeja said.

“But Rutu [Ruturaj Gaikwad] and Faf [du Plessis] gave us a good start. You need to be collective as a unit, whether with bat or ball. I was just backing my strength. He [Prasidh Krishna] was bowling with fine leg and square leg up. I thought he would bowl full outside off, and slow short ball. I thought he would give one ball up, and luckily, I connected well.”

 

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