Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav register rare feat in ODI cricket

The left-arm spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja worked magic to bowl out the West Indies at 114 runs in 23 overs during the first ODI in Kensington Oval, Barbados on Thursday.

Leaking just six runs, Kuldeep Yadav sent four West Indian batters back to the pavilion. Jadeja dismissed three, leaking 37 runs though. Two of Jadeja’s preys: Rovman Powell and Romario Shepherd, came in the same over.

With this, the duo has become the first pair of left-arm spinners from India to take seven or more wickets in an ODI.

This stellar performance forced the hosts to finish on their second-lowest score against India in an ODI. The lowest West Indies were bowled out for was 104 runs in Thiruvananthapuram 2018.

“The way the pacers bowled was really good, Mukesh and Shardul in particular. And then Jadeja and I could handle things, the ball was spinning a bit. We had to control our lengths and the wickets were easy to get. I have been working on my rhythm and it has been amazing. The ball is coming out nicely and I’m very pleased with it. I have also been varying the pace and in the white-ball format, my focus is on hitting the right lengths,” Kuldeep said during the innings break.

For the West Indies, it was skipper Shai Hope who was the top scorer with 43 off 45 and besides him and Alick Athanaze no other Caribbean batter could go beyond 20.

In response, India got to the target in 22.5 Overs. Ishan Kishan with 52 off 42 headlined the chase.

Recently another duo that Jadeja is a part of registered a big milestone. The second Test against West Indies saw the pairing of Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin collect 500 Test wickets together, the only Indian spin duo to achieve the mark after the legendary pair of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.