Mumbai: Rajasthan Royals director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara believes Ravichandran Ashwin handled the match situation well by ‘retiring out’ at the right time against Lucknow Super Giants but admits not to send Riyan Parag before Rasi Van der Dussen There was a mistake. Rajasthan became the first team in the history of IPL to adopt the ‘retire out’ strategy.
When Ashwin was playing 28 runs in the match against Lucknow on Sunday, he himself returned to the pavilion. “It was the right time to do that,” Sangakkara told reporters after the match. Ashwin himself took this decision. We had discussed earlier what to do.” South Africa’s Van der Dussen, playing his first match of the season, was sent to No. 4 ahead of Shimron Hetmyer, Ashwin and Parag but could only manage four runs while Parag hit a six in the last over to take the team to 165. Royals won the match by three runs.
Sangakkara said, “One mistake I made as coach was I didn’t send Riyan Parag before Rasi van der Dussen. This did not allow us to take full advantage of Ryan. But Ashwin handled the situation well. He sacrificed his wicket in the interest of the team and later bowled brilliantly. Lucknow needed 15 runs in the last over but pacer Kuldeep Sen performed well under pressure and Sangakkara also praised him.
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He said, “I did not talk to Kuldeep before the last over. It was Sanju (Samson), Jose (Butler) and other players who encouraged him. Kuldeep bowled the toughest over under pressure and did a great job for us.” Lucknow remained in the match till the last over thanks to Marcus Stoinis (28 off 12 balls) despite not running the top order.
Lucknow captain KL Rahul said, “Our belief in the entire 20 overs is building that we can win the match. We have depth in our batting. Stoinis came out to bat at number eight. We are confident that Stoinis can come down to any number and win matches for us.” (agency)