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In the fifth encounter of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, India squared off against Australia. The contest lived up to its billing, delivering a riveting display of cricketing excitement.
The Men in Blue emerged victorious, notching up an impressive six-wicket win at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on the memorable Sunday of October 8th.
Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who bowled a phenomenal bowling spell of 3/28, claiming the crucial wickets of Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and wicket-keeper Alex Carey, came up with a witty reply when being asked about his success secret against the Smith.
The Aussies won the toss and chose to bat first, their decision seemed to backfire early as opener Mitchell Marsh was dismissed for a duck. However, David Warner and Smith steadied the innings from that point onwards.
But, the potent spin bowling arsenal of the Indian team, succeeded in dismantling the strong Australian batting lineup, limiting them to a modest total of 199 runs.
Also WATCH: ODI World Cup 2023 – Ravindra Jadeja bamboozles Steve Smith with a beauty in IND vs AUS clash
Starting off the chase, the hosts got off to a shaky start, losing key wickets of their skipper Rohit Sharma, who departed for a duck, as well as Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, both of whom also failed to score a single run.
However, the game’s turning point came with the formidable batting performance of Virat Kohli, who scored 85 runs, and KL Rahul, who was just three runs short of a century with 97 runs to his name. Together, the duo formed a crucial partnership of 165 runs, completely altering the course of the game in favour of the Rohit-led side.
Jadeja’s humorous reply
When asked about the reason behind his success against Smith, considered one of the finest batters in the modern-day era, the Navagam-born cricketer refused to answer it as he mentioned that the media persons would print that in English and Steve would get to know it.
“No, no, I will not tell you. You will print it in English and they will understand. No, I won’t tell you this,” Jadeja told the reporters in the post-match press conference.
An interesting statistic to highlight is that in 37 international cricket matches, Jadeja has managed to dismiss the former Australian skipper a total of 11 times, with five of those dismissals occurring just this year.
