Manchester: Former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar joined the praise for all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who smashed 77 against New Zealand in the semifinal as the team lost by 18 runs, putting aside his tiff with the cricketer over social media. “Well played Jadeja,” said Manjrekar with a wink at the end of his tweet.
India lost to New Zealand by 18 runs after restricting them to 239/8 in the rain-hit semifinal played over two days.
Indian batters were undone by Matt Henry’s brilliant opening spell as he returned figures of 3/37. Ravindra Jadeja (77) and MS Dhoni (50) shared a 116-run stand for the seventh wicket, but in the end that proved to be not enough, especially after Dhoni was caught short of crease by a brilliant direct hit by Martin Guptill.
The cricketer-turned-commentator, who had called Jadeja a “bits and pieces player”, also excluded the Saurashtra all-rounder from his playing XI against the Kiwis.
Earlier, reacting to Manjrekar’s comment, Jadeja had tweeted back: “Still I have played twice the number of matches you have played and I’m still playing. Learn to respect people who have achieved. I have heard enough of your verbal diarrhea Sanjay Manjrekar.”
Manjrekar did change his opinion July 6 during the India-Sri Lanka game in which Jadeja featured, calling him a ‘street-smart’ cricketer.
