The ravishing Ravindra Jadeja reaffirmed his status as the country's premier Test all-rounder with an attractive century while his spin bowling partner Ravichandran Ashwin hit a half-ton, taking India to a comfortable 468/7 at lunch against Sri Lanka on the second day of the first Test on Saturday (March 5). Jadeja (102 batting off 166 balls - till lunch) scored his second Test hundred to become only the second Indian after Kapil Dev to Score 5000 runs & pick 400 Wickets in International cricket.
And right after his super knock, the IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals (RR) posted an emotional tweet in Shane Warne's memory. RR took to their official Twitter handle and wrote, "100* off 160. Rockstar Jadeja. You’ve made him proud." It was Warne who gave Jadeja the tag 'Rockstar' back in 2008 when the duo were part of the RR in the inaugural edition of the IPL.
On Friday (March 4) one of the all-time greats of cricket, Shane Warne died at the age of 52 due to a suspected heart attack in Thailand which sent shockwaves through the cricketing fraternity.
"Absolutely shocked to hear about Shane Warne. A terrific statesman of our game. May God bless his soul and my condolences to his loved ones,” Jadeja had earlier tweeted.
"Then I didn’t know what rockstar meant. When I met Shane Warne for the first time, I didn’t know he was such a great bowler in Test cricket. He used to call me ‘rockstar’, and I used to wonder that I don’t sing any songs, nor do I do anything that I deserved to be called a rockstar," Jadeja had recalled his first reaction when he heard the "Rockstar".
The hundred would be an immense confidence booster for the Saurashtra man, who had missed four Tests this season due to a knee injury.
India is slowly and surely batting Sri Lanka out of the game as the seventh wicket partnership of 130 runs between Jadeja and Ashwin, has in all likelihood, put a final nail in their coffin unless, there is an out of the world batting effort from Sri Lanka. The 111-run off 27 overs during the session came at brisk pace, courtesy India's spin twins.
The Sri Lankan team looked despondent at the start of the day and Dimuth Karunaratne's defensive field placings was a testimony how they were just trying to bide time rather than think of getting wickets.
