Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja scored 50 runs off 35 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday in the Indian Premier League, albeit in a losing cause.
Surprisingly, this was Jadeja’s first-ever fifty in T20s. Having played 241 games in the format for more than 13 years now, Jadeja’s previous highest score was 48, which he scored against now defunct Deccan Chargers in the 2012 edition of the IPL.
After making his debut in T20s on 4 April, 2007 Jadeja has proven himself to be a match-winner in this format with both bat and ball. However, he has batted mostly in the lower-middle order in most teams he has played for whether in the IPL or for Saurashtra in domestic cricket or in internationals. Thus, he hasn’t really got many balls to play himself in and play a big innings.
On Friday, however, Jadeja came into bat in the 9th over of the CSK innings when they needed over 100 runs to win. He stitched a partnership with skipper MS Dhoni before assumiing the aggressor’s role.
He brought up his half-century in 34 balls but got out the next ball. CSK eventually couldn’t get over the line against the SRH team and lost by 7 runs.
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