Ravichandran Ashwin is often associated with T20 innovations, be it his decision to ‘retire’ citing a new method of legal dismissal or ‘Mankading’ triggering massive debate about its appropriate spirit. However, the seasoned off-spinner made headlines on Friday for a completely different reason. Ashwin survived a bizarre run-out during the T20 series opener against the West Indies when Obed McCoy missed a golden chance to disturb the stumps.
It all happened in the 18th over when Dinesh Karthik hit the ball towards long-off for a double. Ashwin, running at the non-striker’s end, had to dive to eventually get through. But there was more to the story. If Obed McCoy had made a run, Ashwin would have been a long way off.Bowler McCoy, who collected it cleanly, had the ball in hand but surprisingly didn’t bowl the bails, with Ashwin still miles away from the wicket.
Karthik and Ashwin, who remained unbeaten on 13, shared an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 52 runs as India posted a competitive score of 190-6. Captain Rohit Sharma hit 64 off 44 balls at the top of the innings after India were batted first.West Indies reached 122-8 in reply, with Shamarh Brooks the team’s top scorer with 20 off 15. India extended their winning streak with a 68-run victory in the first of five T20 Internationals against the Caribbean side.
Arshdeep Singh (2-24), Ravi Bishnoi (2-26) and Ashwin (2-22) contributed wickets each in four overs, while senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar had bowling figures of 1-11 from his two overs.While Rohit laid the foundations of a formidable unit, it was Karthik who gave India’s innings an important late boost with an unbeaten 41 off just 19 deliveries.As many as 52 runs came off the last four overs as Karthik smashed four fours and two sixes to once again show his ability to finish. His blistering knock also earned him the man of the match award.
“The way we finished the innings was great because we needed to hang in there and get more than a couple of scores,” Rohit said after the match.”We also want to continue to try different things in different phases of the innings to improve our overall game.”
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