RIP Rajendrasinh Jadeja: Both sides of a side!

In pic The Bombay University team which won the Rohinton Baria Trophy by beating Delhi in the January 1620 1975 final at Mysore Standing Rajendrasinh Jadeja encircled Bava Adam Avadhoot Zarapkar team manager Prof H Suvarna Ravi Tuli Raju Babla captain chief guest for the final Sandeep Patil Dilip Vengsarkar and Vijay Alva Sitting Bharat Nadkarni extreme left Chintamani Vaidya Umakant Prabhu Vijay Mohanraj Suru Nayak and Hemant ShahYet another gentleman has succumbed to a thoroughly ungentlemanly pandemic On Sunday it was the turn of former Saurashtra and Mumbai allrounder Rajendrasinh Jadeja 66 to join the list of cricketers who have succumbed to Covid19Yes Jadeja or Raju as his friends across the cricketing fraternity called him was a gentleman as endorsed by his exteammates Sandeep Patil and Ravi Shastri in their tributes ldquoReally sad to lose a colleague from Nirlons Mumbai and West Zone and a friend for many years Raju Jadeja due to Covid19 complications A gentleman to the core May his soul rest in peace Om Shantirdquo tweeted ShastrilsquoGentleman on and off fieldrsquoldquoRaju was a gentleman on and off fieldrdquo Patil said of Jadeja who was in the same championshipwinning Bombay University team which beat Delhi at Mysore in 197475 ldquoHe came into prominence after he toured England with the Indian Schoolboys team under manager Vijay Manjrekar in 1973 Unfortunately he did not do justice to his batting He looked so good in nets but was completely the opposite in the match I last met him a few years ago when I was Indiarsquos chief selector and we chatted about the old days and our time with Nirlon office team in Mumbairdquo Patil told middayThe 1979 Cricket Quarterly issue which featured Rajendra Jadeja below left on the cover Rajinder Singh Hans Sandeep Patil and Shivlal Yadav are the othersA little after Patil spoke about Jadejarsquos neglected batting we stumbled on a 1979 copy of Cricket Quarterly in which sports writer Sunder Rajan penned a profile of Jadeja In it Rajan mentioned how Jadeja put on 45 with Patil in pursuit of Delhirsquos 359 in the 197879 Ranji Trophy semifinal at Wankhede StadiumThe seventhwicket stand ended when Jadeja 7 hooked an S Madan Lal bouncer only to be caught by wicketkeeper Surinder Khanna in the first innings Patil slammed 145 and Mumbai were 30 runs short in a match Delhi won on the first innings Doubtless it was as a pace bowler that Jadeja made the biggest impact and probably his finest hour in Ranji Trophy was when his 627 helped skittle out a full Mumbai side for 79 on a matting track at Surendranagar in Saurashtra on October 2 1976 Karsan Ghavri who was in that Mumbai team recalled ldquoThough Raju was not a seasoned cricketer at the time he was a specialist on matting He kept all batsmen on the back foot because of the bounce With his higharm bowling action he troubled all including Sunil Gavaskar who was dismissed by him for a duck in the first inningsrdquoGhavri claimed 640 as Saurashtra were bundled out for 109 but the visitors still enjoyed the lead Mumbai bounced back thanks to Ashok Mankad 124 not out and Gavaskarrsquos 83 to win the game by 163 runs Indiarsquos current onedrop batsman Cheteshwar Pujararsquos father Arvind made his Ranji debut in that match ldquoRaju was very accurate and was a big concern for most batsmen It was tough to counter on matting wickets because he had that knack of bowling on those knots of the mattingrdquo Pujara Sr told middayJadeja was playing for Mumbai by the 197879 season and along with Ghavri had to play against their original state team in the December 911 Ranji game at Bhuj where the Saurashtra men opened the bowling for their adopted teamI lost a friend GhavriJadeja returned to Saurashtra in 198081 and played off and on till 198687 ldquoSaurashtra and Mumbai lost a good cricketer but I lost a very dear friendrdquo said an emotional GhavriSandeep Patil and Karsan GhavriJadejarsquos 134 wickets and 1532 runs in 50 firstclass games provide some indication of his utility but doesnrsquot include his splendid performances in schools and University cricket On that 1973 India schoolboys tour he scored five halfcenturiesThere is no instrument to measure class but if someone like Vijay Manjrekar ldquoraved about his talent at the end of the tour in 1973rdquo according to Rajan then there is good reason to believe that Jadeja was unfortunate not to adorn his countryrsquos coloursAlso ReadFormer Saurashtra cricketer and BCCI referee Rajendrasinh Jadeja passes away