Former Australian opener Mark Waugh showered praise on Ravindra Jadeja after India won the second Test match by six wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi to take an impregnable 2-0 lead in the series. Waugh said Jadeja was threatening the stumps all the time and Australia made a lot of mistakes on the third day’s play.
Jadeja returned with career-best figures of 7-42 and ran through Australia’s batting order on the third day’s morning. The left-arm spinner was right on the money and bowled at the stumps to reap his rewards.
However, the Australian batters made the mistake of trying to sweep against Jadeja and it led to their downfall. Jadeja got the big wicket of Marnus Labuschagne and from there on, it was just one-way traffic.
Furthermore, Jadeja had returned with three wickets in the first dig and thus took a total of 10 wickets in the match. Moreover, Jadeja scored a crucial knock of 26 runs in the first innings and added 59 runs with Virat Kohli.
“In these conditions, in these sort of pitches, we saw here, we saw in Nagpur where there is a bit of natural variation in the surface,” Waugh said on Star Sports.
“And he is particularly dangerous when the pitch is keeping low because he is threatening the stumps all time. So as a batsman against Jadeja, you just got to be patient, I would not sweep against Jadeja because he is skidding low at the stumps, that was a mistake that the Australians made in this game. You just got to show him respect.”
On the other hand, former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif slammed Australia’s tactics of playing the sweep shot against Ravindra Jadeja.
“Even a club cricketer in Delhi will warn you against sweeping at Kotla. That too against Jadeja who can bowl flat, fast, and accurately. 7 wickets, no rough from his end, Jadeja is a champion all-rounder,” Kaif tweeted.
The third Test match between India and Australia will be played at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore from March 1.