Ravindra Jadeja celebrates after scoring his half-century (Source: Reuters/Sanjay Manjrekar Twitter)Former Indian cricketer-turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar praised all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for proving him wrong with his stupendous performance in World Cup 2019 semi-final against New Zealand at Old Trafford, Manchester on Wednesday. Manjrekar faced a lot of flak for calling Jadeja ‘a bits and pieces player’. Even the all-rounder replied to his criticism on Twitter with the infamous ‘verbal diarrhoea’ comment.
But, Jadeja converted Manjrekar him into a fan after probably playing his best ODI innings. “Bits and by pieces, he just ripped me apart today. Bits and by pieces of sheer brilliance just proved me wrong on all fronts. But this is Ravindra Jadeja we have not seen very often. In the last 40 innings, his highest score has been around 33. Today, he was brilliant, economical with the ball and the familiar celebration that we see more in the Test matches,” Manjrekar said.
He was also asked where he was during the half-century celebration as Jadeja was pointing to someone. “Forgive me, I wasn’t there. I have to apologise, he was looking for me, star of today looking for me but I wasn’t there. I was in the lounge eating my lunch,” he answered.
“By bits ‘n’ pieces of sheer brilliance, he’s ripped me apart on all fronts.”@sanjaymanjrekar has something to say to @imjadeja after the all-rounder’s fantastic performance against New Zealand.#INDvNZ | #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/i96h5bJWpE
— ICC (@ICC) July 10, 2019
The 30-year-old came to bat when India had lost six wickets for 92 and struggling in the run chase of 240. He staged India’s comeback with a 116-run partnership with MS Dhoni and brought India back to the game. He scored 77 runs from 59 deliveries hitting four fours and four sixes.
Earlier, Manjrekar felt that Jadeja should not have been picked in the semi-final as the pitch was not a rank turner despite his decent performance against Sri Lanka in India’s last league game,.
He even blocked former England skipper Michael Vaughan on Twitter for trolling him about the ‘bits and pieces’ episode as Jadeja continued to perform and picked the wicket of Henry Nicholls on Tuesday and bowled an economical spell giving just 34 runs in his quota of 10 overs.
