Jadeja was the difference between the two teams, says Dhoni

Ravindra Jadeja proved yesterday that he has the character to take the rough with the smooth.

He is going through the worst phase of his career following the Indian Premier League controversy, but if he is under pressure he showed no signs of it during the first one-day game against Southu00a0u00a0 Africa yesterday.

Jadeja has been banned from this year's IPL because he went shopping for a better deal at an inappropriate time.

Jadeja was all focus at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium as he made valuableu00a0 contributions with both bat and ball in India's nail-biting one-run win. His captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was all praise for the Rajkot player. "Jadeja was the difference between the two teams," said Dhoni.

u00a0Jadeja chipped in with 22 runs off 20 balls and returned figures of 10-2-29-2.

Dhoni showed a lot of confidence in the left-arm spinneru00a0and brought him on as early as the 11th over during the powerplay.

"Bowling in the powerplay is a tough job but I focussed on bowling stump to stump. I did not want to give any room even outside the offstump," said Jadeja.

The spinner said that there was an advantage of bowling earlier as well, as there was not much dew and hence, gripping the ball wasn't difficult.

In spite of dominating most of the match, India almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Parnell and Steynu00a0 produced brilliant rearguard action to reduce the equation to 10 runs off six balls. "When the last over started, I was praying to God that after playing so well throughout the match we shouldn't lose now," said Jadeja.

Sachin Tendulkar saved a crucial boundary in the last over with a diving save. "The one-run Tendulkar saved proved crucial in the end," he said.