Rohit Sharma & Co on Sunday registered a 5-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the campaign opener in Asia Cup 2022, held in Dubai. After bunding out the Men in Green for 147, India finished the chase with 2 balls to spare. The duo of Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja forged a 52-run match-winning stand for the fifth wicket that laid the foundation for India’s convincing victory.
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While Pandya finished the chase in style, smashing a six against Mohammad Nawaz in the final over, it was Jadeja’s 29-ball 34 that gave the much-needed push to the Indian innings, especially after losing the top-three in KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma. After getting promoted to number 4 in the batting order, the southpaw smashed a couple of sixes and as many boundaries before getting knocked over by Nawaz in the final over.
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After the game ended in India’s favour, Jadeja came across Sanjay Manjrekar who was one of the commentators and was hosting the post-match presentation. And the first thing that the latter asked the all-rounder was: “You’re okay na to talk to me, Jaddu?”
Jadeja replied, “Ya, ya, absolutely,” and it left both of them chuckling.
Sanjay Manjrekar – “You’re okay na to talk to me, Jaddu?”.
Ravindra Jadeja – “Ya, ya, absolutely”.#INDvsPAK #Jadeja #AsiaCup2022 pic.twitter.com/3MzXN1Eh0Z
— SATHVIK VISHWANATH (@SATHVIK_05) August 28, 2022
This bit of the conversation caught the attention of the fans as a spat between them had taken over social media back in 2019 when Manjrekar had called Jadeja a ‘bits and pieces’ cricketer during the 2019 World Cup. The comment had left the all-rounder baffled as he took to Twitter and wrote, “Still I have played twice the number of matches you have played and I m still playing. Learn to respect ppl who have achieved. I have heard enough of your verbal diarrhea. @sanjaymanjrekar.”
But three years down the line, things seem to have turned normal as Jadeja spoke very generously after playing a crucial knock in India’s chase of 148.
“Thank you very much. We wanted to play till the end, they have a very good bowling attack, their fast bowlers don’t give anything away. I could have finished the game – left-arm spinner against the left-hander, but Hardik played superbly. He (Pandya) came out and said he was going to play his shots, and happy that he stayed till the end,” Jadeja said.
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