'What the hell have you done?' - Ravi Ashwin recalls the time he let MS Dhoni down

Ravi Ashwin is a highly skillful bowler and becomes a captain’s go-to bowler whenever he is a part of a team. That was the case with MS Dhoni as well. The former Indian captain was someone who looked after Ashwin’s talent during the initial stages of his career. Ashwin was Dhoni’s trump card when he was with the Chennai Super Kings.

In a recently released interview, Ashwin recalled the time when he let down Dhoni. The off-spinner talked about an incident that happened way back in 2010 during the Champions League T20 tournament in South Africa. It was a close game between Victoria Bushrangers and CSK during the group stages. While chasing a score set by Chennai, Victoria ended up with the same score as MSD’s side. The match was then decided by a super over.

MS didn’t even think, gave the ball to me, and went off: Ravi Ashwin

Ashwin recalled the incident and also revealed that he took the responsibility of bowling the super over. Generally, a captain is reluctant to give a super over to a spinner but Dhoni agreed.

“We were standing in a huddle, Fleming just ran, there was a quick meet up. As they were all talking, I just put my hand up and said I want to bowl the Super Over. There was Doug Bollinger, there was Murali, but nobody volunteered for that. For me, it felt like an opportunity to win a game for the team. He (MSD) didn’t even think, gave the ball to me, and went off,” Ashwin told Harsha Bhogle on ‘Cricbuzz in Conversation with.’

Ashwin recalled how it went from bad to worse for him as he ended up conceding 23 runs. Ashwin added, “I bowled that over, I succumbed to pressure, David Hussey hit me for a six and then I started chasing the over, I started bowling quicker and quicker. I bowled the yorkers and didn’t execute them. Now if I think back, I just tell myself – what the hell have you done? You wanted to bowl a Super Over, the man gave you a Super Over, CSK is a team that you wanted to be a part of, you wanted to be a performer and you have pushed your team out of the tournament now.”

Well, luckily for Ashwin CSK didn’t lose the plot in the tournament. They ended up winning the tournament and he was the highest wicket-taker in that season. He even won the player of the tournament award.