New Delhi, Sep 19 Legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar credited all-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for their "super" 195-run unbeaten partnership to rescue India from a crumbling situation on the opening day of the first Test against Bangladesh at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
The duo stabilised India's innings to finish the first day's play at 339/6 following Ashwin's 102 not out and Jadeja's unbeaten 86 at Chepauk. India were once tottering at 144/6 after Bangladesh pacer Hasan Mahmud dismantled the hosts' top order as he took the scalps of Rohit Sharma (6), Shubman Gill (0), Virat Kohli (6) and Rishabh Pant (39) in the second session.
The wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal (56) and KL Rahul (16) in the second session further mounted India's struggle in the middle before Ashwin-Jadeja reestablished dominance of the home side.
Former India batter lauded Ashwin and Jadeja for shifting the tide with their "all-round brilliance".
"From despair to domination! @ashwinravi99 and @imjadeja's knocks have turned the tide for India once again. This all-round brilliance is invaluable. Super partnership boys," Tendulkar wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
After the end of play, Ashwin credited his partner for boosting his morale in the gruelling Chennai heat.
"He (Jadeja) was of real help, there was a point in time where I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years. Him being there, pretty solid and he was also very helpful in terms of telling me that we don't have to convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me," Ashwin said.
On hitting his second Test century at Chepauk, Ashwin termed it a "special feeling" and revealed the hard work he had done before the series to hone his batting skills.
"Always a special feeling to play in front of the home crowd. This is a ground I completely love to play cricket in. It's given me a lot of wonderful memories. The last time I got a hundred, you were the coach Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri). It does feel special. It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting. Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump. Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you're going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh does," he added.
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