On Sunday, India defeated Pakistan in a thrilling Asia Cup contest. Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya played a vital role in Men in Blue’s last-over win. At a time, India needed 60 runs in 6 overs with their top 4 batters already sitting in the pavilion. The two all-rounders put together a 52-run partnership which completely changed the game.
Sanjay Manjrekar goes cheeky with Ravindra Jadeja
Jadeja scored 35 runs while Hardik Pandya’s 33 runs and 3 wickets earned him the player of the match award. After the match, Ravindra Jadeja faced another opponent, Sanjay Manjrekar. The cricketer-turned-commentator who is Jadeja’s biggest critic had to take an interview with the Indian all-rounder.
Manjrekar started the interview with a cheeky question, “You are ok to talk to me, right?”. The 33-year-old player had no choice other than to laugh and say, “Absolutely, I don’t have any problem”. Further Jadeja talked about the game, “Thank you very much. We wanted to play till the end, they have a very good bowling attack, but their fast bowlers don’t give anything away. I could have finished the game – left-arm spinner against the left-hander, but Hardik played superbly”.
— Cricket fan (@Cricketfan093) August 28, 2022
How Jadeja and Manjrekar become enemies
Sanjay Manjrekar and Ravindra Jadeja controversy erupted back in 2019 just before ICC World Cup. In an interview, the commentator had made some harsh comments on the all-rounder and called him a ‘bits and pieces’ player.
“I am not a big fan of bits and pieces players which Jadeja is at this point of his career in 50-over cricket. In Test matches, he is a pure bowler. But in 50-over cricket, I would rather have a batsman and a spinner,” Manjrekar had said.
After that, the Navagam-born cricketer proved the cricket expert wrong with his performance and even chose to reply to him through words. “Still I have played twice the number of matches you have played and I’m still playing. Learn to respect ppl who have achieved. I have heard enough of your verbal diarrhoea,” Jadeja had replied Manjrekar.
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Manjrekar had to pay the price of his biased commentary as he was removed by BCCI from their commentary panel. The former Indian cricketer even requested BCCI to give him another chance but was dismissed by the president of the board Sourav Ganguly.