'Won’t God Allow my Chip Over Infield in Some Vacant Area?': R Ashwin Opens up On Final Over Thriller vs Pakistan

Ravichandran Ashwin opened up on what went through his mind before hitting the winning run for India in the high-voltage clash against Pakistan on Sunday in Melbourne. Ashwin came out to bat when two runs were needed from the last delivery and Mohammad Nawaz bowled a wide ball which eased some pressure off the bowler.

The final over witnessed some fascinating drama as Nawaz dealt a huge blow on the first ball of the final over when Pandya miscued the slog and the thick edge went to cover-point. On the fourth ball, Virat Kohli smacked a waist-high full toss high over a deep square leg fence for six, which was on a no-ball. After Nawaz conceded a wide, Kohli and Dinesh Karthik ran three byes on the free-hit delivery before the latter was stumped on the fifth ball.

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All eyes were on Ashwin on the final ball as he smartly shuffled on the first delivery he faced and it turned out to be a wide. He finished off the chase with a loft over mid-off to win a thriller for India.

The 36-year-old talked about his mindset when he went out to bat as Kohli told him a couple of things but something else was going through his mind,

“I saw Virat Kohli and he told me so many things but I was staring at his face. I thought of only one thing after seeing him. “God has given you so much today. So how will he ever let me down? So at least for you, won’t he let me get these runs?”

“I told myself ‘See the ball, then place it in a vacant space and just run’,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

The veteran spinner revealed that he just wanted to find the gap to hit the winning run on the final ball.

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“I was relieved that no stone-pelting would happen at my house. I just wanted to place the ball and run,” he added.

“Again, I drew from it (Virat Kohli’s knock). I thought ‘God has made this guy smash Haris Rauf over his head for a 6 on the backfoot and over the square leg for another with a flick’.

“Won’t god allow my chip over the infield in some vacant area? And thank god, it did happen,” Ashwin added.

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