Dubai: Chennai Super Kings star Ravindra Jadeja has hailed former club Rajasthan Royals for their role in turning him into an effective Indian Premier League (IPL) all-rounder.
The left-arm spinner and useful lower order batsman excelled again on Friday night as he scored 17 from 10 balls with the bat before producing a match-winning spell of four for 12 with the ball as Chennai beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 34 runs in a rain-affected match.
Jadeja’s heroics took him to second place in the Purple Cap standings for top wicket-taker in IPL-7 with ten wickets, just one behind teammate Mohit Sharma.
But the man who helped the Royals win the IPL title in the inaugural edition in 2008 gives credit to Rajasthan for turning his career around.
“My stint with RR obviously laid the platform from where I could start playing cricket on the next level after the Under-19 stage,” he said after being named man of the match on Friday.
“After that, I got the opportunity to play for India and then improved my game further. So RR did have a role in getting me through the initial stages of my career.”
After a rain delay in Ranchi, Brendon McCullum’s 56 from 40 balls took Chennai to 148 for three from their 17 overs, before Kolkata were restricted to 114 for nine. The Super Kings now have five wins from six matches, with their only blip being an opening defeat to in-form Kings XI Punjab, who successfully chased down 206 thanks to Glenn Maxwell’s heroics.
“Against Kings XI, we dropped Maxwell early in the innings, which turned out to be the difference between the two sides. It’s a short format and one catch is all it takes. We’ve learnt from that game and have improved our catching,” Jadeja said.
Of his performance against the Knight Riders, Jadeja added: “I’m glad to have contributed towards the team. While batting, when we couldn’t really get runs during the end, the runs that I scored were crucial for us.
“The wicket also had a lot of spin in it and thankfully the ball was turning a lot more in the second innings. So I just bowled in the right channels.”
KKR captain Gautam Gambhir was disappointed as his team fell to their fourth defeat in six matches this season. The India opener said his players have produced some good individual performances but are yet to click as a team, adding: “We won seven games in a row when we won the IPL [in 2012].”
