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Ravindra Jadeja dropped a Player of the Match award for his all-round show in Rajasthan Royals' (RR) clash against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Wednesday, April 22 at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Faf du Plessis wants Jadeja to change his batting approach
The former-CSK all-rounder scored 43 not out off 29 balls to lead RR post 159-6 after 20 overs at a slow surface of Ekana. In the second innings, RR bowlers pulled out an amazing performance to bowl LSG out for 119 in 18 overs.
With the ball, Jadeja managed to clinch one wicket by giving just 29 runs in four overs, his all-round show made him win the Player-of-the-Match award. However, Jadeja's former teammate Faf du Plessis is not fully convinced with his batting approach and urged him to bat with more intent during the death overs of the game, especially against seamers.
In an interaction with ESPNCricinfo, Faf urged Jadeja to bat with an aggressive intent during, saying he waits till the 18th or 19th over which is a little late in today's modern T20 cricket.
"He's got so many options in terms of clearing the boundary. Overs 16 to 20 is almost like Jaddu territory. The seamers come back and he scores in awkward areas. For me, he's got the ability to take the game on. I feel sometimes he just undersells himself, leaving it a touch late. He waits till the 18th or 19th over and then accelerates and goes bang bang and you go where was that a little bit earlier," said Faf.
Although Faf acknowledged the fact that Jadeja was the last recognised batter in RR's game against LSG, he still focused on him to change his approach in the middle overs, especially between 12 to 16. While concluding, Faf declared that Jadeja is way better than this.
"In this game, it's difficult to point a finger at that because his team was under pressure. Jofra Archer was next in. After that, they are running out of steam, but in general there's a 12 to 16 period where I feel Jaddu just knocks it around. As a bowler, it's nicer to bowl to someone like that. I would say to him, 'you are better than that, you can take bowlers down'," Faf concluded.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi reveals his pre-match routine
The 15-year-old batter failed to create an impact with the bat in the first innings, getting out on eight runs off Mohsin Khan's delivery. After RR's bowling department dismissed LSG batters on just 119 runs, Sooryavanshi revealed his unique pre-match-routine, which is actually understandable keeping his age in mind.
In an interaction with JioHotstar, RR's young opener revealed that he watches cartoons before every match, yet he is very much focused on the games.
Next challenge for Rajasthan Royals
The Riyan Parag-led side will lock horns against Ishan Kishan's Sunrisers Hyderabad in their upcoming IPL 2026 clash on Saturday, April 25 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Currently, RR sit at second place with 10 points in hand after seven matches in the tournament with a net run rate of +0.790.
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