In the IPL match against Chennai Super Kings, the umpires’ independent decision to change the ball due to the dew perplexed Rajasthan Royals spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. He urged consistency in such judgments. Ashwin, who recorded numbers of 2/25 on Wednesday night at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, was “surprised” when the umpires intervened and changed the ball during the chase due to the high dew.
In a nail-biting last-ball match, the Royals defeated the four-time IPL champions by three runs. CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja failed to meet their team’s goal of 176 runs in the final over.
Because of the high dew, Ashwin claimed he has never before witnessed the umpires replacing the ball.
The umpires switching the ball for dew on their own startled me quite a little. I’m quite astonished because that has never happened before. To be honest, some of the judgments made in this year’s IPL on the field have confused me a little,” the India legend admitted during the post-game news conference.
In other words, it confused me in both good and negative ways. I believe that a little bit of balance is what you need,” explained Ashwin, who was named “Player of the Match.”
“As a bowling team, we are not requesting a new ball. But the umpires agreed to alter the ball. The umpire responded that we can modify it when I asked.
“So I just hope every time there is dew they can change it every single time going forward in this IPL that sort of, you can do whatever you want, but you just need to be in a standard going forward,” he continued.
The Royals spinner expressed satisfaction with the way he was bowling and anticipation of fooling hitters even more with his flighted deliveries.
“So, I believe what I’ve realized is even Sanjay (Manjrekar) asked me, ‘Are you keeping it a lot more simple?'” I believe that keeping things simple requires a certain level of competence. I believe that I evaluate situations and offer what I believe to be the greatest solution.
“So, for me, right now, I’m just really enjoying my bowling, and I plan to fool the batsman more in the flight,” he said. That’s due to my current bowling situation, Ashwin continued.
The scoring pace slowed after a strong start, and the side finished at 175 for 8 in 20 overs. Ashwin, who was moved up the order after Royals lost a couple of wickets immediately, claimed the pitch was offering spin and they had to wait because the scoring rate had dropped.
“When he (Jadeja) started bowling, I thought I was taking part in a Test match. We will run into these situations with many teams on various home fields; they were just a few raging balls.
“I simply thought it was the ideal position for a left-arm spinner to strike with decent speed and side spin. For those two or three overs, Jadeja was unplayable because the ball occasionally spun from outside the leg stump. To pick our opponents, we had to bide our time, said Ashwin.
