Rohit Sharma defends giving Ashwin the 18th over | Cricket - Hindustan Times
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Rohit Sharma defends giving Ashwin the 18th over

By, Perth
Oct 30, 2022 11:31 PM IST

The India skipper acknowledged the team missing catches and run outs after South Africa won by five wickets with two balls to spare in Group 2 of the T20 World Cup in Perth

Rohit Sharma’s instincts as captain are mostly on point. When Arshdeep Singh thought the ball that hit Rilee Rossouw’s back leg was going down leg, Sharma thought for a while before going for a review. It paid off. But reverting to Ravichandran Ashwin when South Africa needed 25 from 18 balls turned out to be an expensive move. Ashwin can be uncanny in the slog overs, but he was facing David Miller who had already hit him for a six in the 14th over. On the other end was Aiden Markram, who too was good against spin. Ashwin got hit for two consecutive sixes and the match was pretty much lost there.

India's Ravichandran Ashwin(AP)
India's Ravichandran Ashwin(AP)

Sharma defended the move, saying he was not convinced with how spinners were finishing in the final over of this World Cup. For context, Pakistan left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz had conceded 16 runs in the final over against India. That too must have influenced Sharma’s decision. “I have seen what happens in the last over with spinners, so I just wanted to go the other way and see if I could finish Ash and not keep him for the last over,” Sharma said at the post-match presentation on Sunday.

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“I just wanted to make sure that the seamers were bowling the right overs, but honestly, when you have options like that, you have to use them at some point. I thought given that the new batter (Tristan Stubbs) came in, it was a perfect time for him to bowl. But things like that can happen. Miller played some good shots as well.”

That South Africa would go after Ashwin was more or less expected given how India had given the charge to left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj earlier. “I think naturally our game would sort of pan out (like that) when the seamers are all that difficult to get away,” Aiden Markram said at the press conference later. “We expected them to take on Keshav. I'm sure they expected us to take on Ashwin as well, just because of the nature of the wicket, because the seamers were so difficult to get away. So, it almost got to a stage where we had to target someone because they bowled so well initially in the first, pretty much, 10 overs up until the drinks break.

“It got to the stage where we had to pick someone. It could be anyone on any night. And sometimes you execute. Sometimes you don't. But you pick those matchups according to who you’re most comfortable against on the night. You get to different conditions and those matchups would change completely. It was a discussion we had at the drinks break to pick one of the bowlers, commit to that.”

At the halfway mark, India had a great chance of winning but Markram (52) and David Miller (59*) rode a bit of luck as well as India dropped catches and missed run-outs. “Sometimes you get the rub of the green, sometimes you don't. At the end of the day you have to be grateful when you do get a bit of luck in the game,” Markram said. “If you take those catches, it's a different thing,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar said later.

Sharma acknowledged India’s fielding lapses. “The last two games we played, we were pretty good in the field and we want to continue to be consistent in that department,” he said. “But unfortunately we couldn't hold our chances, a few run-outs we missed, including myself. But we need to keep our heads high and think about what's coming for us and take the learnings from this game, what we need to do in games like that.”

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Somshuvra Laha is a sports journalist with over 11 years' experience writing on cricket, football and other sports. He has covered the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, the 2016 ICC World Twenty20, cricket tours of South Africa, West Indies and Bangladesh and the 2010 Commonwealth Games for Hindustan Times.

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