Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Friday, finished off Australia’s first innings with a bullet throw right on to the stumps, a lot faster than Steve Smith’s speed. The Baroda based cricketer picked four wickets and affected a runout to put on a near-perfect all-round display in the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at SCG, Sydney.
The Ravindra Jadeja Video That Went Viral
“Surely the best fielder in the world. Period,” the commentators couldn’t stop lauding Ravindra Jadeja’s speed, accuracy and precision as the allrounder ran in from square leg to hit the bullseye when the margin of mistakes could be as low as seconds.
It was Steve Smith, who was batting on 130, and with only one wicket left in the kitty, was striking the ball left, right and centre. However, when the Aussie placed a 144.5kph short of a good length delivery from Jasprit Bumrah to on-side backward of square off the inner edge and tried getting two, it was Jadeja who made sure the only way Smith had to lead was towards the pavilion. Ravindra Jadeja ran in from square leg, covered the distance quickly, picked the ball with his left arm and hit the stumps perfectly.
That was absolutely ridiculous throw jaddu @imjadeja you can throw rockets ? with your hands . Take a bow sir jadeja ?? incredible stuff out there .#AUSvIND #INDvsAUSTest #SydneyTest pic.twitter.com/lxOPXvmAFM
— Sudarshan Patil (@Sidhpatil78) January 8, 2021
How Senior Journalists And Former Cricketers Described The Throw?
Describing the extraordinariness of the throw, sports journalist Melinda Farrel too on to Twitter to say, “And for his next trick, Sir Jadeja will TURN WATER INTO WINE. #AUSvIND”
Indian cricketer turned commentator/expert Aakash Chopra also commented on Jadeja’s rocket arm. He wrote,” What. A. Throw. All hail Sir Jadeja. Kya player hai yaar….will score runs in this Test too. #AusvInd.”
Sanjay Manjrekar while describing the runout, said that it was only Jadeja could’ve made this possible.
“Seemingly impossible that only Jadeja the fielder could have made possible. Not just the accuracy of the throw but the sheer speed of the throw was the key to that runout. Absolutely brilliant!
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What About The Game And How Things Have Worked Out So Far?
Earlier, Jadeja claimed four wickets after only bowling three overs on day one. The allrounder’s preys consisted of Australian mainstay Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon. He recorded his third-best figures (4/62) on foreign soil and the best in Australia.
The Australian innings which was much held by Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne folded for 338 runs after 105 overs. Debutant Will Pucovski (62) scored a fine half-century at the top, stitching a 100 run stand with Marnus Labuschagne. Later followed another century partnership between Labuschagne and Steve Smith. However, the rest of the batsman couldn’t survive the Indian attack. For India, Jadeja leads with four wickets to his name, followed by Jasprit Bumrah and Navdeep Saini with two each and Mohammed Siraj with a sole wicket. Ravichandran Ashwin remained wicketless.
The pitch that seemed like a batting paradise saw Tim Paine and company fold relatively earlier than they would have wanted. There was not much for bowlers and the second innings is expected to again be dominated by the batsmen. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill came out to bat before the team and assembled a careful 26 run stand.
