Updated: December 2, 2020 8:44:34 pm
India’s Ravindra Jadeja, left, turns to look at the ball as he batts with teammate Hardik Pandya against Australia. (AP)
On the second ball of the 47, Ravindra Jadeja shuffled over the stumps, dug in on her knees and gently lifted a full low shot from Sean Abbott over the square leg back for a four. A scandalous blow that was all wrists and placement.
He amused his hitting partner Hardik Pandya, who immediately walked over to Jadeja and laughed at the punch, before rehearsing it himself and gesturing that his wrists are not as malleable as Jadeja’s. It was the moment that captured their joie de vivre hitting together, as they forged an undefeated 150-run alliance that laid the foundation for a 13-run victory for India.
The spirited victory would not alter the status of the series, but it did give India much-needed support after Sydney’s setbacks. Once again it was a validation of the importance of Pandya and Jadeja, who scored 92 of 76 and 66 of 50 respectively to win India back from an annoying 152 of 5.
They may not be the most talented players in the setup, like Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli. but he does not admit any argument that both are of paramount importance to the side. Haha, if he can hit as deftly as he did Wednesday, when he could improvise as much as a mighty hit, it adds an extra layer of threat to the Indian batting signature. Similarly, with Pandya, when fully fit to bowling, India would become an indomitable force for ODI for the foreseeable future.
An explosive hitter who can bowling at an efficient medium pace (sometimes picking up pace too) and a thrifty player who can hit explosively are invaluable propositions in all formats. They might be the hero’s sidekicks, but their cameos could create blockbusters.
Also, they are similar to each other in more ways than one. It’s like they were born to hit together. They both have a touch of whimsy. Pandya flaunts her earrings, tattoos, and studs; Jadeja boasts of the thoroughbreds on his block, imprints his Rajput identity on his celebrations, sword dancing and all that jazz. There were times in their careers when they seemed to be descending the slope of Enfant Terrible, before realizing and quickly rectifying their mistakes. Beneath the glimmer and lightness is the stoic determination and courage to maximize your gifts, the desire to keep evolving. A decade ago, Jadeja was a good cue ball player before refining himself as an excellent test pitcher and a smarter hitter. Pandya, on the other hand, added yards of pace to his medium pace and increased his hitting power on a few points.
These are virtues that most leaders would love, their indifference and nonchalance, the fundamental traits of Pandya and Jadeja. His winning match association fully embodied these characteristics. At 152 out of 5, most lower-tier hitters would be caught in a dilemma, whether to play their natural game or to call for caution. They rarely combine both. But Pandya and Jadeja found the perfect balance. Even when Jadeja fought for the agricultural strike, he was not under any visible strain. He knew he could make up for the point balls in the end, which he accomplished devastatingly. From 16 of 28 balls, he ran to 66 of 50 balls, his last 50 consuming only 22 balls.
The southpaw relied mainly on time and location than on power. There was a strange hit to the side of the leg or a hit past the point, but rhythm was his closest ally. None more instructive than a top cut from Abbott. It was a slow gorilla, and Jadeja waited, opened her wrists and lifted the ball over the point backwards. He had started again with a six from another short ball, in which he swung from the ball line, got underneath, and tossed it over the square leg back. The sophistry only reflected his growing stock as a white-ball hitter.
With Jadeja in a destructive mood, Pandya was content to rotate the strike, ditching the allure of a hundred ODI maiden. After the 46th, he was 75 of 66 balls, just hitting Abbott by 2-6. But he faced just 10 more balls for 17 more runs. It was a mature shot, in which he maintained a healthy running pace without embracing risk, a less praised facet of his game.
Together, they looted 76 runs from the final five overs, giving the revamped Indian bowling alley the cushion of a score of over 300. Aside from Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah, the rest had not appeared in Sydney. But the trio of Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur and rookie T Natarajan had a solid performance to suggest depth in Indian bowling stocks.
Bringing considerable relief, Bumrah was filled with hostility and enthusiasm. If the spell of the new ball was incisive, those with the old ball were diabolical. He brought India back into the game with a Glenn Maxwell wicket scoring. With the equation reading 35 of 34 balls, Bumrah slipped a scorching yorker that Maxwell, recklessly backing away, completely missed.
The wicket wrote the final twist of the match. Natarajan, hitting 19 runs in his previous over, delivered an excellent four runs before beating Ashton Agar, India’s latest roadblock, a victory. Thakur kept up the pressure with a variety of knuckles and slow rebounds, leaving Australia with 15 runs to score a Bumrah, an equation that seemed unlikely. And Bumrah ended his search on the third ball, thus raising the sadness that had engulfed the Indian team after Sydney’s submission.
As concerted as this effort by the new-looking seam trio had been, Yadav showed signs of leaving a forgettable year behind. He wasn’t as crafty as he could be, but he threw long laps and kept scoring in the middle. He threw flatter and faster than usual, but didn’t provide too many limit balls, as he had for most of this year. Thus, the dead rubber gave India signs of better times ahead on the tour. None brighter than the continuous evolution of Jadeja and Pandya.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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