A 41-run stand for the last wicket, and three tail-end wickets in one over. That is the very definition of “crucial” in a low-scoring contest
Sidharth Monga in Kanpur24-Sep-20163:45
Agarkar: Jadeja’s accuracy phenomenal
Mohali. First Test of the last season. India are changing the nature of the pitches they want dramatically. They win the toss, but still find themselves down at 154 for 7. Ravindra Jadeja scores 38 after coming in at 102 for 5. India end up with 201, which gives them an eventual 17-run lead.In Nagpur, an extreme raging turner that will get a “poor rating” from ICC, India once again find themselves about to lose the toss advantage when they are 125 for 6. Jadeja scores 34, taking India to 215.In Delhi, India are 139 for 6. Jadeja scores 24 in a seventh-wicket partnership with centurion Ajinkya Rahane.In low-scoring matches on turning pitches, where lower-order runs often decide matches, India’s lower order consistently kept outscoring South Africa’s, thanks to Jadeja. The two Ranji Trophy matches on which Jadeja’s comeback was built were even more low-scoring matches than these. He took 24 wickets in them at an average of 8.25, but perhaps the telling contribution was made through innings of 91 and 58 the only times he batted.At the start of another season, on another pitch expected to break up soon but not as soon as the ones last year, India were 277 for 9 against New Zealand, having thrown away wickets, and also the advantage of wining the toss. Jadeja scored 42, including a last-wicket stand of 41, took India to 318. Unlike South Africa, New Zealand’s lower order held promise. Mark Craig had three half-centuries in 23 Test innings; and neither of Trent Boult or Ish Sodhi is a mug. Jadeja ran through them with three wickets in one over.Imagine India’s lower-order scores 25 fewer, New Zealand’s adds 25 more, a combination par for the course, and KL Rahul can say goodbye to the devil-may-care attitude he batted with as India took the game away from New Zealand. That one burst of late runs on the second morning, and that one over was the difference between dominance and parity for India. There were collapses on both sides, as is expected on these pitches, but India had Jadeja to arrest it and they also had Jadeja to make it emphatic when New Zealand collapsed.It is easier to see why Jadeja runs through tails on such pitches. At the end of the second day’s play, New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan was asked if the batsmen picked which one from Jadeja would turn and which one would go straight off the hand or off the pitch. McMillan gave an honest and instructive reply. “It’s hard to pick it out of the hand when he bowls so quick, and he bowls such a consistent line and length, which offers a lot of challenges. Our guys have used the depth of the crease really well, going forward and back and picked up length really early, which is important.”Even for the best of the batsmen, when you are going to react to the ball after it pitches, it is pertinent you pick the length early and decisively either come forward to smother the action on the ball or go back to adjust to whatever it does off the surface. On less responsive pitches, you can play the line; on such turners you have to be much more disciplined. Ross Taylor wasn’t. He was stuck on the crease, neither smothering the ball nor giving himself time to adjust to the lack of turn.If the specialist batsmen are not picking Jadeja from the hand, what chance does the lower order stand? Plus the lower order needs runs. Jadeja doesn’t give them runs. He fires them in, he fires them in accurately, and they – not knowing which way the ball is going – are hares in headlights.Just after lunch, after some really hard-fought cricket, India bowled five overs of pace out of which four were unchallenging. Thirteen gifted runs in four overs into it, New Zealand were just 67 behind and had five wickets in hand. Now, though, you could see a loose left arm rotating, loosening up for another session of hard work after having bowled 13 in the first. Christmas was over. Jadeja was helped along by partner-in-crime R Ashwin, who removed Mitchell Santner, but now we were into the lower order. Now we were into Jadeja territory.Ravindra Jadeja is not the sort of orderly batsman you can plan against•BCCISo confident was Jadeja of his accuracy and pace now that he left the cut open for Craig. No point, no short third man. You feel like going there against the spin? Be my guest. Two balls into the over, Craig was trapped plumb to a ball too full. Sodhi repeated the Taylor mistake. You just walk in, and you get spin bowling this accurate, this fast, and you don’t know which way it is going. This is spin bowling’s closest equivalent of late swinging yorkers. It was a collapse that demoralised New Zealand after six sessions of hard-fought cricket.Once Craig fell, with three more wickets to go, M Vijay, India’s opener, already began to shadow-practise at the pitch while the new batsman walked in. For a New Zealand opener to do so with India seven down would be premature. Not with Jadeja still unbeaten. Why he should succeed with the bat on such pitches when he is ridiculed for his batting is a question that needs deeper searching.It does go back, though, to his upbringing in Saurashtra where he played on either slow and flat tracks or slow turners. The experience of batting on such pitches for years and years has helped. It has also developed strong wrists because you need them to impart power into your shots on slow pitches. He uses them to keep the ball down even if he doesn’t reach the pitch of the ball. His drives, even to mid-off, are wristy. The sword-wielding celebrations that he unfurled at Lord’s in 2014, he can actually do that with the actual traditional sword. His sister says the sword is so heavy it can break normal untrained wrists.Sitanshu Kotak, Jadeja’s former Saurashtra team-mate and now their coach, has always maintained Jadeja bats much better when he is given responsibility. Kotak makes him bat at No. 5 for Saurashtra. Now when he bats in these situations he does so knowing his responsibility. There is expectation of him as a runs-provider too.Kotak believes Jadeja can bat because he picks the length early, has quick feet, can cut or pull, and has a big heart so he can take the risk to unsettle the bowler. Jadeja is not the sort of orderly batsman you can plan against. He is fidgety, he is restless, and he hits in unusual areas too. When he is beaten in the air, he uses his strong wrists to keep the ball down. Twice, when farming the strike with last man Umesh Yadav for company, Jadeja showed the power of the wrists when he stepped out twice to Santner. Once he cleared mid-off, and once long-on. On neither occasion was there a big wind-up, just the flick of the wrists.The other day Vijay spoke in a tired cliché defending Rohit Sharma’s shot to get out. “Keep doing what has got you here.” It is understandable that a player will stand up for his team-mate in public, but some players need to learn and evolve when they come to Tests because what brings them there might not be good enough. In Jadeja’s case, though, at least on turning pitches, what has brought him here is good enough.