Watch: After patiently batting for 80 deliveries, Ravindra Jadeja mistimed a slog in an attempt to accelerate, handing an easy catch to mid-on off Todd Murphy’s bowling on the fourth morning of the final Test India-Australia Test in Ahmedabad.
Jadeja had done all the hard work yesterday (Day 3) and had got himself set. He had been selective with his shots and had shown respect to the bowlers until this morning (Day 4) when he decided to take them on rather uncharacteristically.
Before his eventual dismissal, Jadeja had survived a couple of lbw shouts and had miscued another attempted aerial shot which fell in no man’s land. It seemed as if he had come out with a clear plan to accelerate after having taken 54 balls to get to 16 yesterday (Day 3).
But the plan backfired as he ended up mistiming a second consecutive aerial shot. Todd Murphy was smart with his subtle variations of pace and trajectory. The wicket ball was pushed slightly quicker at 90kph which meant Jadeja couldn’t get under it and get the elevation he wanted, handing an easy catch to Usman Khawaja at mid-on.
Sunil Gavaskar, who was in the commentary box during the dismissal, was furious with Jadeja’s shot selection. “Look at that! What is this shot?”, he exclaimed. Gavaskar also questioned India’s tactics. “Did somebody say anything to him that suddenly in this particular over he’s gone the aerial route?”, he said.
This dismissal has given Australia a window of opportunity to get back in the game, especially with Shreyas Iyer’s availability with the bat in doubt following his complaints of back pain.
