'Well Done, JD'-Ravi Ashwin Encourages Jaydev Unadkat After Another 'Dear Red Ball' Post

India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has lauded Jaydev Unadkat after the Saurashtra cricketer went onto pick up a hattrick in the Ranji Trophy match against Delhi on Tuesday. Fresh from his fine bowling performance in the second Test against Bangladesh at Mirpur, Unadkat returned to the Ranji grind and made a smashing impact.

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Unadkat took wickets off the third, fourth and fifth deliveries to achieve the distinction of becoming the only player to take a first-over hat-trick in Ranji Trophy’s 88-year-old history.

The previous quickest Ranji hat-trick, a split one, is in the name of Karnataka’s Vinay Kumar who achieved the feat over two overs — first and third.

This has been a superb turnaround for Unadkat who had played his first Test match in a decade recently in Bangladesh. However, there was a time when he thought his dreams are over as he wrote a ‘dear ball’ post on social media two years ago. Back then, he received a lot of encouragement from Ashwin and he once again came out to laud him for his hattrick against Delhi.

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“Well done JD.” Ashwin replied on his post where Unadkat had shared a picture of the red ball. This post was also titled “dear red ball.”

Unadkat’s hat-trick victims included opener Dhruv Shorey, Vaibhav Rawal and young Delhi captain Yash Dhull, all of whom departed for duck.

Top order players like Badoni, Rawal and even Dhull didn’t have the wherewithal to face Unadkat on a lightly damp wicket and they had no clue which one was leaving them, which one came back in and the trademark one which skids straight after pitching.

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And by the time he was done with his second over, the 31-year-old Unadkat had added two more scalps to accomplish his 21st five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Unadkat’s continued to wreak havoc, finishing with career-best figures of 8/39 in his 12 overs on Tuesday.

(With agencies)

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