India’s veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin showed his skills and experience in the second ODI against Australia at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on Sunday. Ashwin returned with impressive figures of 3-41 in the seven overs he bowled and played a key role in skittling out Australia at 218.
India went on to win by a massive margin of 99 runs (DLS method) to take an impregnable lead of 2-0 in the series. Ashwin made the most of his experience and variations to bamboozle the Australian batters.
There was help for the spinners in the second innings as the ball was turning a mile and Ashwin and Jadeja made the most of it, both taking three wickets apiece.
Ashwin accounted for Marnus Labuschagne, David Warner, and Josh Inglis in his fine spell.
“They had nothing to lose after the rain break. They had to go hard and needed a boundary every over. Chasing 400 over 50 overs is completely different than chasing (317) in 33 overs. I wanted to keep the length perfect, away from the bat, and also change pace,” Ashwin said after the match in a BCCI video.
The veteran spinner deceived Labuschagne with a carrom ball and the right-hander looked at sea.
“Marnus played a reverse before that and I was expecting him to do something similar or slog, so I wanted to keep my pace up and down just in case he gave the stumps away. They were not picking the variations of the hand, so maybe that angle and the change of grip to bowl the carrom ball and the off spinner – I am using my third finger – hopefully will hold me in good stead,” Ashwin said explaining Labuschagne’s dismissal.
Ashwin revealed he worked with former Indian spinner Sairaj Bahutule on his grip at the National Cricket Academy, Bangalore.
“I worked a little with Sairaj at the NCA on slightly different grips. We worked on it for three to four days. For the amount of professional cricket I have played over the years I should have done this a lot before,” Ashwin said about the work he put in at the NCA.
“At the end of the day, if a batsman is deceived by my delivery, it is a good ball. I was pleased with the amount of uncertainty I was able to create with respect to bringing both edges into play,” the spinner concluded.
The third and final ODI of the series will be played at Rajkot on Wednesday.
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