The second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed two brilliant performances from two old warhorses of Twenty20 cricket in particular. Kings XI Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin, after his all-round performance against RCB, backed it up with an act of brilliance on the field.
Both Chris Gayle and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were simply sensational on their given day with the bat as they went on to show that ‘Old is Gold,’ indeed.
That said, the high scoring match was brilliantly poised as hosts KXIP tried to defend their total of 197 in front of the star-studded CSK lineup.
Impressive Ambati Rayudu was in no mood to give away his start as he looked to finish the match for his side along with skipper Dhoni at the other end.
With pressure mounting on CSK, Rayudu struck the fourth ball of the 14th over off Barinder Sran towards covers for a couple at least.
However, KXIP captain, Ashwin, posted at extra cover, ran to his right to cover a good ground, grabbed the ball and threw it towards the batsmen’s end.
Rayudu, who already was almost halfway towards the bowling end, turned around, only to find that throw from Ashwin took his off stump.
Scoring at the strike-rate of 140, Rayudu managed to score 35-ball 49. His innings was laced with five fours and a solitary six.
On the other side, Punjab won the match by just four runs despite Dhoni’s heroics with the bat.
The ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin himself conceded 32 runs for a solitary wicket of another day star Sam Billings.
Here’s a look at Ravichandran Ashwin’s moment of brilliance:
https://twitter.com/PRINCE3758458/status/985778224662794240
Also, here’s the newsfeed:
IPL 2018: God has Given Me Lot of Power, Don’t Need to Use the Back a Lot – MS Dhoni
IPL 2018: Twitter Lauds MS Dhoni’s Incredible Innings In Losing Cause
