Follow UsRavichandran Ashwin once again showed off his batting prowess against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), scoring an unbeaten 40 off 23 deliveries to take his team home. With the ball, Ashwin was at his best once again, finishing with figures of 1 for 28, which included the wicket of Devon Conway.
Speaking of his batting, Ashwin thanked those working with and also acknowledged that the clarity given by the team management early on is helping him do the job efficiently.
“Batting is one part of the sport which is massively driven by reputations,” Ashwin said in the post-match press conference.
“Being primarily a bowler, I get to bowl a lot in the nets and the batsmen occupy most of the time and space inside the nets. When you're batting number eight or nine, you'll get to bat once in 3-4 games, if you're batting line-up is doing well.
“But the fact that they did tell me that I will be opening in the practice games, you might be used in the powerplay and the amount of repetitions I was given and the proper simulations - all these things really help.
“I've been quite innovative in terms of trying to adapt new techniques. I am thankful for the people that have put the work behind closed doors. Hopefully, I can put on a few more good performances like this.”
Speaking of the wicket at the Brabourne Stadium, Ashwin said that it was sticky and had to choose the right deliveries to go after.
“You won't know how the wicket behaves from the outside. I took 5-7 balls to see how the wicket behaves. The wicket was sticky. Santner and Moeen's deliveries were sticking to the wicket. Had to choose the right balls to hit,” Ashwin said.
“Yashasvi got out at the wrong time, else I could have taken more risks against Moeen. It was important to play according to the match-ups. I backed myself today. I knew if I played till the end we could win the game.”
Further elaborating on his preparations with the bat, Ashwin said that he goes about his business keeping the wicket in mind.
“Even though we are playing in Mumbai, all three pitches have behaved differently, keeping Pune aside. DY Patil has a bit of steeper bounce and I think it's one of the truer batting wickets going around in the competition. It's a bit slower through the first half,” Ashwin observed.
“Wankhede has been different than what Wankhede has been. CCI has been quite skiddy and flat. According to that, the usage of stance, match-ups against which bowler, there has been a concentrated effort on what areas I have been working on.
“I have tried to open up the wider range options around for me. I am extremely confident that I can clear the ropes when required. That confidence is most important because I can understand the ebbs and flows of the game pretty decently.”
The game against CSK was quite evenly poised when Shimron Hetmyer was dismissed with Rajasthan Royals (RR) still needing 39 from 22 deliveries. Another wicket at that point and RR could have lost their grasp on the game.
However, Ashwin kept things very simple and wanted Riyan Parag to bat with him till the end, which eventually sealed the deal.
“The communication was very clear. Of course, Trent Boult ould come in and smack a few boundaries, but we wanted to be there till the end and take smarter options,” Ashwin said.
“We had Pathirana in front of us who is very skillful. So, we wanted to take the smarter options and take the game to the last over and then probably give ourselves the best chance to seal it in the last over.”
With this win, RR have finished the group stages in second position. They will now take on Gujarat Titans (GT) in Qualifier 1 on Tuesday (May 24) at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.