IPL: Smith, Jadeja And The Art Of Pinching Victories

It is a wonderful game, cricket. It grabs our emotions and takes them on a roller-coaster ride all the time, unaware of how much control it exercises over our conscience and the subconscience. It offers fans many triggers; some events sparking a hypothetical debate, others making them drown themselves in nostalgia.

Rajasthan Royals hero Steve Smith's street-smart decision to pat a delivery from Kolkata Knight Riders's mystery bowler Sunil Narine into covers - left invitingly vacant by Gautam Gambhir perhaps under the mistaken notion that RR needed to get three runs - and complete two runs comfortably has been one such trigger this week.

Having written that Smith's intelligent play would have done Javed Miandad proud, I asked myself which Indian batsman would have acted with the sensibility that Smith showed off the final ball of a Super Over in a high-intensity game. One name sprang to mind: Ajay Jadeja.

Nearly everyone else would have risked a guts-and-glory shot under the circumstances. In the mind's eye, one can see some of those who would have tried the big shot coming out with guns blazing and their reputations enhanced; but one can also see most coming up second best to the pressure of the occasion and the bowler.

So what is it about Jadeja that makes me believe that he would have done exactly what Smith did in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday night? His deep knowledge of the laws of cricket, his ability to harness his own performance to secure the best results and a willingness to reach the goals with the minimum fuss make him the prime candidate.

There are two instances of his craft that stand out - and these come a year on either side of his assault on Waqar Younis' bowling in the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal at Bangalore. In a North Zone Ranji Trophy limited-overs game against Services in 1995, he manipulated (rather than farmed) strike when with tailender Sonu Sharma.

Haryana were in a poor way and it was imperative that Jadeja retain as much of the strike as possible. Services set the field in such a way that they would concede him a single to try and have a go at Sonu Sharma. But Jadeja, acknowledged as one of the sharpest brains in Indian cricket, was up to speed with that ploy.

He came up a counter plan that not only helped his team but also forced BCCI to change the playing conditions. Jadeja and Sonu Sharma would cross but the man running to the danger end would turn from halfway down the pitch. They would get one run - with an umpire signalling one short - but Jadeja retained strike.

Then, in a Ranji Trophy game against Services in Faridabad in 1997, Jadeja shared a last-wicket partnership of 72 with Vineet Jain. It must have taken some skill since Jadeja finished with 242 not out while Jain's contribution to the stand was a grand total of zero runs!

Memories of these matches were strong enough reason to merit a call to the man himself. Jadeja came up with the names of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mohammad Kaif and Rahul Dravid as Indian batsmen who would have shown a similar acute awareness of the immediate task on hand and the possibilities opened up by the field placing to do just enough to get to the goal as Steve Smith did.

"MS has done it in an IPL game," Jadeja said, setting me off on a search for an instance of Dhoni finishing a game with a simple single or a tantalizing two. It is easier to recall instances of Dhoni finishing games with a flourish, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 final against Sri Lanka being on top of that list.

Last year, Dhoni took on Sunrisers Hyderabad's Ashish Reddy and came up with a finishing sequence of dot, six, four and four to win a home game for Chennai Super Kings with two deliveries to spare. Jadeja was right, though. A year earlier, Dhoni flicked Rajasthan Royals' Stuart Binny to fine leg and picked up two runs off the last ball at the MA Chidambram Stadium in Chennai to complete a seven-wicket win.

It is a wonderful game, cricket. It lets us dip into the past and come up with some amazing memories. Every action on the cricket field triggers visual images from another time.