Kings XI Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin has no regrets in ‘mankading’ a set Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler, saying these sort of moments are game-changers and a batsman “need to be wary of it” before leaving the crease early.
Ashwin sparked off a big controversy when he mankadedButtler, the first to be dismissed in such a manner in the history of theIndian Premier League.
A desperate Ashwin ran Buttler out in the 13th over with thebatsman going strong at 69 off 43 balls. The dismissal is sure to raise freshdebate over the spirit of the game as the off-spinner didn’t give theEnglishman a prior warning.
But Ashwin said he was completely within his rights toexecute such a dismissal, which completely turned the match in Kings XI’sfavour.
“No real argument on that and it was pretty instinctive. Ididn’t even load and he just left the crease. We ended on the right side of thecoin, but I definitely think that those are game-changing moments and batsmenneed to be wary of it,” Ashwin said after Kings XI beat Rajasthan by 14 runs.
The Kings XI skipper lauded his bowlers for bringing theteam back into the contest.
“We all know that after six overs it is going to slow down.Credit to bowlers on how they bowled. I have been working on a lot ofvariations, pretty happy that it came out,” he said.
“Sam (Curran) had a bad day with the ball, but he came backwell. Everybody ticked their boxes. We do have a few options amongst us, but ifwe can have good five overs, there is nothing like it.”
Rajasthan Royals skipper Ajinkya Rahane refused to commenton the controversial dismissal and left it on the match referee to take a callon the issue. PTI