Ravichandran Ashwin has been known as a street-smart cricketer. Over the years, there have been several instances where he showed his smartness.
It can be by either stopping before bowling a ball if he found the batter moving. Or running the non striker out before even bowling the ball.
On Sunday, he did something similar that made everyone appreciate his smartness.
It came in Rajasthan Royal’s fourth game of the season. They were playing against LSG, and things were not going in their way.
Having lost four early wickets, the management decided to send Ashwin ahead of Riyan Parag to stabilize things.
Ashwin, who has scored five international test centuries, played an excellent knock. But what he did in the 18th over was entirely out of the ordinary.
After adding more than 60 runs in a partnership with Hetmyer, Ashwin decided that was that.
Ashwin knew that he had done his job and decided to retire out. He took a single in the second ball of the 19th over and kept running to the RR dugout.
Ashwin was batting at 28 with a strike rate of 121, which is not bad.
However, he was aware that it was not his job to hit the bigger sixes. And Riyan Parag, who was sitting in the dugout, could do that.
As a result, Ashwin decided to retire out, which brought Paragon to the field. And the youngster did hook one out of the park to add to his team’s total.
Hetmyer’s great knock
The game, in the end, was actually changed by Shimron Hetmyer. The West Indian youngster came on to the crease when his team was suffering at 63-3 in 9 overs.
Known for his explosive batting, he started off slowly. The player later revealed that the pitch was slower and assisting the spin bowlers. “Hence it was important to get your eyes in,” he added.
That is what Hetmyer exactly did. In his inning, he was playing at 21 off 25 deliveries. And once he got into his groove, he made 39 runs off the next 11 deliveries.
Hetmyer’s inning consisted of 6 sixes and just one boundary.
With the help of his quick-fire inning, Rajasthan Royals could post a respectable total of 165 runs.
If the wicket is indeed playing slow, they should be able to defend the total.
