Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Sunrisers Hyderabad wicket-keeper batter Heinrich Klaasen (17) found themselves in a verbal battle in Indian Premier League 2023 Match 29 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium tonight.
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It all happened on the first delivery of the 14th over when SRH batter Mayank Agarwal hit a Jadeja delivery back to him. Having almost grabbed a catch, Jadeja ended up dropping the ball after coming in contact with non-striker Klaasen.
Not wanting to deliberately disrupt Jadeja’s momentum whilst grabbing a simple catch by his standards, Klaasen’s unintentional involvement wasn’t appreciated by the bowler and understandably so. Readers must note that Klaasen’s action was a usual reflex response to a ball getting hit towards the bowler.
Denied a wicket, Jadeja immediately gave an elongated stare to the South African cricketer. In spite of Klaasen giving an explanation, Jadeja never appeared to be convinced which led to the two continuing to debate throughout the over.
It was at a later stage in the over that umpire Virender Sharma had to intervene to make peace between the two, particularly to calm down an enraged Jadeja.
Ravindra Jadeja and Heinrich Klaasen Fight
Jadeja, however, managed to take revenge in the same over. It was on the penultimate delivery of the over when Agarwal stepped down the track only to miss a shorter and quicker delivery from the left-arm spinner.
Having watched the batter’s advances, Jadeja was astute enough to alter his length in order to deceive the batter. The 34-year old player didn’t miss an opportunity to roar towards Klaasen after dismissing Agarwal.
Pick of the bowlers for Super Kings on Friday, Jadeja returned with bowling figures of 4-0-22-3 which also comprised wickets of top-order batters namely Abhishek Sharma (34) and Rahul Tripathi (21).
Mayank Agarwal fails at No. 6
Agarwal, meanwhile, walked back to the pavilion after scoring 2 (4) in his new role of a No. 6 batter. A natural opener, Agarwal batted at this position only for the 10th time in his T20 career. While all these instances have come in the IPL, this one came after half-a-decade.
Agarwal, who hasn’t had a lot of success in this role barring a half-century for Royal Challengers Bangalore 11 years ago, is yet to make a mark in IPL 2023. In six innings this season, Agarwal’s 115 runs have come at an average and strike rate of 19.16 and 106.48 respectively.
