Followed the ‘MS Dhoni plan’ in partnership with Hardik Pandya, says Ravindra Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja celebrates reaching his 50 in the 3rd ODI (AP)

MS Dhoni might have retired from the Indian national team, but his legacy continues to be invoked. Speaking about the unbeaten 150-run partnership Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya put up in the 3rd ODI to pull off a recovery of epic proportions, Jadeja said he followed the template set by his former India captain and current Chennai Super Kings captain.

“Mahi bhai has played so much cricket for India and Chennai (CSK). He always had a set pattern. He would go in and look to build a partnership with the batsman. He always used to get himself set and look to play the big shots. He has played in such situations so many times,” Jadeja said in an interaction with Sony Sports Network after the match.

“By looking at him and given the fact that I have batted with him so many times, he always used to tell me that if we can take it till the last then we can score a lot of runs in the final four-five overs,” Jadeja added.

“It was the same situation and that is what he tried to do today. Hardik and I were discussing that we can take a chance in the last few overs. The boundary was smaller on one side so that was the plan.”

The ‘plan’ worked to perfection on Wednesday.

Hardik Pandya (92* off 76 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (66* off 50 balls) put on a show in the last few overs of India’s innings to take the team’s score from 152/5 in the 33rd over to 302/5 in 50 overs.

Their 150-run unbeaten partnership is the highest ever partnership for the sixth wicket or lower in ODIs in Australia. It is also the highest ever 6th wicket partnership in India-Australia ODIs.

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