'Seven Star' Jadeja helps India retain Border Gavaskar Trophy

Ravindra Jadeja thoroughly exposed a technically illequipped and mentally messed up Australian batting unit with a careerbest seven for 42 as India won the second Test by six wickets to retain the BorderGavaskar Trophy here on SundayThe Australian batters paid the price for some atrocious shot selection as Jadeja who enjoyed a 10wicket match haul along with Ravichandran Ashwin 359 decimated the visitors in the morning session bowling them out for 113 in 311 overs The last nine wickets fell for 52 runsKL Rahul 1 cut a sorry figure but Indian batters showed how to play spin as the target of 115 was completed in in 264 oversCheteshwar Pujara had something to cheer about on his 100th Test appearance as he remained unbeaten on 31 and fittingly hit the winning boundary India have now put one foot in the final of the World Test Championship in England in June having taken an unassailable 20 lead in the four match seriesThe win was Indias 100th against Australia across formats The third Test will be played in Indore from February 27Starting the day at 61 for 1 Jadejas arm balls became a lethal weapon with as many as five Australian batters getting out trying to play sweep shots of deliveries that kept low on a typical third day Ferozshah Kotla trackAlso readCheteshwar Pujara My dream is to win WTC FinalAustralia lost nine wickets for only 52 runs and it was not the pitch but the fear of unknown that led to their eventual downfallSteve Smith Matt Renshaw Alex Carry Pat Cummins and Matt Kuhnemann were all guilty of playing the ugly slog sweep and some tried nonexistent reverse sweep off deliveries bowled on either middle or leg stump lineThey were either bowled or adjudged leg before in the process as the deliveries started keeping lowAshwin also played the supporting act to perfection as eight Australian batters failed to reach double figures save overnight pair of Travis Head 45 and Marnus Labschagne 35 who had briefly counterattacked last evening with some degree of successBut it all changed in the morning session once Head got an offbreak from Ashwin and the edge was picked up by Kona Bharat behind the stumpsIt is a cardinal mistake to play a sweep or reverse sweep off straighter ones or sliders if there isnt enough bounce The ball that trapped Steve Smith plumb infront was on legmiddle and it was a fair callThe ideal technique of playing on tracks where ball starts keeping low is to plonk the frontfoot forward and play with a straight bat When a player stretches the frontfoot forward the chances of silly point or short leg being in business also reduceInstead if you are on the backfoot or trying to play across the line shots like sweep and reverse there is every possibility that spinners will mostly keep it in line of stumps waiting for either bowled or leg before decisionLabuschagne who looked confident until then went on backfoot to a delivery that was supposed to be met on the frontfoot with a big stride The result was the ball kept low and the batter was castledMatt Renshaw doesnt have the technique or wherewithal to guts it out on these Indian dustbowls and he has been a walking wicket for the home teamHaving replaced a concussed David Warner Renshaw went for a sweep off Ashwin when the ball kept really low and the shot was not onThe only delivery that was classic leftarm orthodox one was bowled to Peter Handscomb 0 the best batter in the first innings Jadeja for a change tossed it up and drew him forward before it turned away enough to get an outside edge into Virat Kohlis handsPat Cumminss ugly slog sweep shot was more out of anger and frustration rather than purpose and Matt Kuhnemann while giving Jadeja his seventh wicket looked as clueless as possibleRohit showed how to play spinners on low bounce trackWhen India started the chase their skipper Rohit Sharma 31 off 20 balls showed how to tackle the Australian spinners before being runout due to a mixupUnlike Labuschagne who preferred to stay on backfoot even to flighted deliveries the moment Rohit saw the ball being given air he would put a big stride forward and lift it in the arc between sight screen and cow cornerRohits stay was short and sweet one but certainly a lesson in playing spinnersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever