Watch: R Ashwin bowls the magic ball to Nuwan Kulasekara

Watch: R Ashwin bowls the magic ball to Nuwan Kulasekara: R Ashwin is India’s premier off spinner by quite a distance at the moment. The lanky tweaker may appear quiet and unassuming but he does plenty of damage with a cricket ball. Though he first made a mark in the IPL, nowadays he is a fantastic bowler even in the longest format. He is truly an all format bowler and a captain’s delight. He picked up 20 wickets in the recently concluded Test series against Sri Lanka and gave a hard time to Kumar Sangakkara, one of the game’s greats.

His rise has been phenomenal, such that Harbhajan Singh, by no accounts an old horse, is made to sit out regularly.

Ashwin is a versatile spinner as his stats will tell you, but he takes that versatility one step further by landing his variations pretty well. Imagine it as a batsman. You are watching the hand, looking to identify the offbreak, the top spinner and suddenly the carom ball comes and it does not go straight, it turns.

Here we focus on this Soduku ball, a finger-flicked tennis-ball legbreak. His control over the delivery is exemplary. During India’s game in the Champion’s Trophy semi final in 2013, Sri Lanka were reeling at 164 for six having being inserted by India on a lively track. None of the Sri Lankan batsman had any answers to the magnificent swing and seam bowling by the men in blue.

But a moment in the 48^th over of Sri Lankan innings left everybody and particularly Nuwan Kulasekara absolutely stunned. Kulasekara left the fifth delivery of the over as it was surely looking to be a wide. But much to his amusement despite pitching well outside the leg stump the ‘carom ball’ from Ashwin turned sharply to hit the leg stump.

Nobody knew what had happened and a subsequent umpire review was needed to confirm the turn of events. Eventually it was found out what a magical delivery it was from the tall offie. Watch the video here and enjoy the thrill.

Watch: R Ashwin bowls the magic ball to Nuwan Kulasekara:

https://youtu.be/5g-EcAEGnWo