We are happy that our boys have given 100 percent: Ravichandran Ashwin

Dindigul Dragon, the current table toppers in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, suffered their first loss in 5 games after they lost narrowly against Chepauk Gillies in a spicy encounter which went till the last over. Star all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin was in the middle of the proceeding batting with his namesake Murugan Ashwin in the last over when 19 were required off the last over.

In an exciting final over where the momentum shifted from one side to the other, the Gillies pocketed a close six-run win.  Post the loss, Ashwin addressed the media at the NPR College Ground at Natham and spoke about the things that went wrong for his side.

“We have to accept that this is the nature of sport. We had wickets in hand and we backed our players to play good shots and accelerate in the end. We had been doing that well. Our strength is bowling – an area which we should have utilized. We are happy that our boys have given 100 percent and they are fully pumped up.”

“I actually thought we would have won with two deliveries to spare, but then I missed a shot! Ash (M Ashwin) also missed one at the start of the over off a free-hit. We were playing big shots and it is always 50-50 during such games. I was striking the ball well and I should have taken the responsibility to finish off the game.”

“The par score was 180 and we did well to restrict them to 172. We had to score 70 off the last five overs and we almost did that. So that will give us an idea as to how well they bowled. We probably gave them 10 runs more – the overthrows, couple of drops. These are not very large boundaries and the outfield is very fast. The batting standards will get better and these scores will be knocked off very easily.”

Ashwin recently had to intervene in a heated physical altercation between his teammate Jagadeesan and Sai Kishore of the Chepauk Super Gillies. Ther was an emotion overflow in bowler Sai Kishore who after dismissing Jagadeesan proceeded ahead and pushed him off.  Jagadeesan too tried to fend him off.

Speaking about the disgraceful incident, Ashwin said, “They are all young kids and it all happened in the heat of the moment. Also, Kishore bowled very well to take the wicket of Jagadeesan. At that stage, anybody would get pumped up and that’s what happened. Both the captains did very well to diffuse the situation, and it is not called for, but then we need to give them a bit of levy.”