Cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar, who was subjected to criticism for calling Ravindra Jadeja a ‘bits and pieces cricketer’, finally praised the Indian all-rounder, saying that Jadeja ripped him apart by bits and pieces during India’s clash against New Zealand in the first semi-final of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup.
International Cricket Council (ICC) posted a video on their Twitter handle in which Manjrekar can be seen having a conversational With Niall O’Brien and Ian Smith.
“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,” ICC captioned the video.
“This is the Jadeja we haven’t seen before. Today he was brilliant today,” Manjrekar said in the video.
Jadeja went on to play a sensational knock of 77 runs, and once he reached to his fifty, he pulled off a sword celebration and directed it towards the media box.
“I have to apologize to him (Jadeja), he was looking for me but I wasn’t there. I was in the lounge taking my lunch, I’m sorry,” Manjrekar said.
"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
Jadeja displayed an all-round performance against the Black Caps as he scored a 59-ball 77, took the wicket of Kiwi opener Henry Nicholls, hit the bull’s eye to run-out Ross Taylor and grabbed a blinder at the boundary to dismiss Tom Lathom.
Jaddu came out to bat when India was in a spot of bother at 92/6. He steadied the innings along with wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni as the duo stitched together a partnership of 116-runs.
The left-hander was finally dismissed by Trent Boult in the 48th over. Jadeja hit 4 fours and 4 sixes in his innings. But his exploits were not enough as the two times World Cup champions lost by 18 runs.
