King of Mohali: Ravindra Jadeja becomes No. 1 all-rounder in Test Cricket
Star Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja has dethroned West Indies’ Jason Holder to become number one in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test All-Rounder Rankings.
Image credit: PA Images Ravindra Jadeja celebrates the wicket of England's Moeen AliHe secured top spot after his astonishing performance in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Mohali. Jadeja scored an unbeaten 175 not out off 228 balls in the first innings.
He also gave a splendid performance with the ball, taking a five-wicket haul in the first innings and a four-wicket haul while yielding only 46 runs in the second innings to help India win by an innings and 222 runs.
It is not the first time the left-handed batsman has achieved the top rank of the ICC Test All-Rounder Rankings. Jadeja achieved the top rank for one week in August 2017.
Jadeja also jumped from No. 20 to No. 17 on the bowling table and from No. 54 to No. 37 in the batting rankings.
He came in at the seventh batting position and scored 175* runs with a strike rate of 76.5, including 17 fours and three sixes. India’s score swiftly moved from 228/5 to 574/8, when India eventually declared.
The Sri Lankan team were bowled out for 174 runs, with Jadeja taking five wickets while yielding just 41 runs. The Sri Lankan team then went on to bat again for the second innings but were bowled out in just 60 overs, scoring only 178 runs, with Jadeja taking four wickets. He also bowled a total of nine maiden overs in the match.
Jadeja’s heroic performance helped India win the match with an innings and 222 runs in just three days.
When Dhananjaya de Silva and Angelo Mathews were able to hold out for 17 overs, slowly getting steady and scoring runs for Sri Lanka, Jadeja broke the resistance with the wicket of De Silva.
Jadeja became the sixth player to score more than 150 runs and take more than five wickets in a Test match.
He narrowly missed out on the achievement of scoring more than 150 runs and taking a ten-wicket haul in the same Test as Ravichandran Ashwin took the final wicket of the match.
Had he taken the final wicket, Jadeja would have become the first cricketer to have achieved this.
Even though he failed to take a hat-trick while bowling against Sri Lanka, he made a different but special kind of hat-trick. It was the third consecutive time he was named the man of the match while playing at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium in Mohali.
Owing to his strong performances at Mohali, Jadeja is being hailed as the ‘King of Mohali’ by cricket fans on Twitter.