Ravindra Jadeja played a blistering knock of 77 runs thatnearly took India across to the World Cup finale during the first semi-final,which New Zealand won by 18 runs. Forcing former Indian batsman SanjayManjrekar, who has been vocal in his reluctance to give Jadeja a chance in theteam, to be all praise and saying the all-rounder “ripped me apart by bitsand pieces”.
“Bits and by pieces, he just ripped me apart today. Bybits and by pieces, he just proved me wrong on all fronts. But this is RavindraJadeja we have not seen very often. Today he was brilliant, economical with theball, and the familiar celebration,” said Manjrekar in a video posted bythe ICC where he was having a conversation with Niall O’Brien and Ian Smith.
The cricketer-turned-commentator, who had called Jadeja a”bits and pieces player”, had excluded him from his playing XIagainst the Kiwis for the semifinals, was trolled heavily on the social media.
Earlier, reacting to Manjrekar’s comment, Jadeja too tweetedback: “Still I have played twice the number of matches you have played andI’m still playing. Learn to respect people who have achieved. I have heardenough of your verbal diarrhea Sanjay Manjrekar.”
Manjrekar did change his opinion on July 6 during theIndia-Sri Lanka game in which Jadeja featured, calling him a ‘street-smart’cricketer.