Ashwin retires out: RR thinks out of the box, tops the table
Shimron Hetmyer revived a sluggish Rajasthan Royals innings with late hitting; Trent Boult, and later Yuzvendra Chahal, all but sealed the victory for RR before Marcus Stoinis took Lucknow Super Giants to the brink with a last-gasp counterattack.
Ashwin, a trendsetter?
With ten deliveries to go in the RR innings, R Ashwin, on 28 from 23 deliveries, walked off the field and continued onto the Wankhede dressing room steps. No. 7 Riyan Parag took his place; he faced four deliveries and scored eight, including one six.
First ever in #IPL hory. Retired out, who else but #Ashwin
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 10, 2022
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Ashwin was sent in at No 6 after RR had been reduced to 67 for 4 in the tenth over. RR allrounder Jimmy Neesham, who wasn’t playing this game, told the on-air commentators during the RR innings that the plan was for Ashwin and Shimron Hetmyer to knock the ball around for a few overs, since there were several left, and for Parag to then come in and hit a few big ones. There was no mention of retiring anyone out.
It was Ashwin, in fact, who had kickstarted the RR counterattack, when he lofted and pulled off-spinner K Gowtham for consecutive sixes in the 16th over. But those remained the only boundaries he was able to hit. In the 19th over bowled Avesh Khan, Ashwin took a single out to the sweeper and began to walk back to the pavilion.
It is incredible that it took almost two decades of T20 for a batsman to retire himself out amid high stakes in the world’s richest cricket league. With every delivery carrying that much more weightage considering there are only 120 of them in an innings, you’d have thought the number crunchers would have made a convincing case long ago for stuck batsmen to strike themselves out. Of course, it is easier said than done, for it can easily open you to ridicule should the move not come off, at the cost of a wicket. Besides, there is that bit about a professional batsman being asked to sacrifice himself in what is already essentially a one-ball game for him.
Law 25.4 on ‘Batters retiring’ allows a batsman to retire at any time when the ball is dead, upon informing the reason to the umpires. If he is not retiring due to “illness, injury or any other unavoidable cause”, he can resume his innings only with the consent of the fielding captain. If he does not resume his innings, he will be recorded as having ‘retired – out.’
This was only the fourth such case of a batsman getting dismissed thus in T20s. The first, fittingly as well as surprisingly, was Shahid Afridi for the Pakanis against Northamptonshire in 2010, but that came in a tour match after Lala had had his fill, having bashed 42 off 14. The other two instances occurred in 2019, in a game between Bhutan and Maldives, and in a Bangladesh Premier League match. It is also fitting that it is Ashwin, never shy of suggestions and innovations to drive the game forward, who has become the first to retire out in the IPL. He has already helped in getting the act of the bowler running out the non-striker to no longer be deemed unfair play. That may not have started a trend of bowlers rushing to run non-strikers out, but this latest act of retiring himself may well be one whose time has come in T20.
Hetmyer wakes up
After Ashwin exited, Hetmyer went on to demonstrate how quickly momentum can switch sides in this format. Heading into the last three overs of the RR innings, Hetymer was on 21 off 25, and RR on 115 for 4. Hetmyer took 38 off his final 11 balls. He went up against West Indies team-mate Jason Holder, and won that battle.
5⃣0⃣ up & going strong 💪 💪
A fine knock this has been from @SHetmyer! 👏 👏
Follow the match 👉 https://t.co/8itDSZ2mu7#TATAIPL | #RRvLSG pic.twitter.com/aKX1cUC09d
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 10, 2022
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During the break, he’d say he knew what Holder was up to. The tall allrounder served up on-pace full deliveries, and Hetmyer walloped them into the stands. Bowling in friendly mid-120s, Holder’s offerings were easy to take apart. He tried going wider but Hetmyer, dropped on 14 Krunal Pandya at long-on off Gowtham, reached out and hit Holder over the straighter boundary.
Boult swings and stings
Having conceded 50 in the final three, LSG were to be now stunned Trent Boult’s lethal swing. He went round the wicket first ball to KL Rahul, and that was all he needed. It curled in like Shaheen Afridi’s massive in-duckers had in the 2021 T20 World Cup, and uprooted the stumps past Rahul’s attempted clip.
Trent Boult has set the ball rolling & how! ⚡️ ⚡️
A double-wicket first over from him & @rajasthanroyals make a cracking start with the ball! 👌 👌#LSG lose KL Rahul & Krishnappa Gowtham.
Follow the match 👉 https://t.co/8itDSZ2mu7#TATAIPL | #RRvLSG pic.twitter.com/u2oUNBqX1X
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 10, 2022
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Indicating it was a clear plan to Rahul, Boult went back to over the wicket to the incoming batsman, Gowtham, as LSG tried some pinch-hitting innovation of their own. Big swing, same result, this time leg-before. Prasidh Krishna took out Holder in the fourth with a surprise short ball after beating him with fuller, swinging ones.
Stoinis stunner
In his first match this IPL five days after playing for Australia in Lahore, Marcus Stoinis caused some late momentum-shifting too. Coming in as low as No 8, at 101 for 6 in the 16th over, Stoinis belted an unbeaten 38 off 17, with four sixes.
Punch Super Striker of the Day for the Match between @rajasthanroyals and @LucknowIPL is Marcus Stoinis.#TATAIPL @TataMotors #PunchSuperStriker #GameThatVibes #RRvLSG pic.twitter.com/EfTskoanA2
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 10, 2022
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He mowed Prasidh Krishna for 19 in the penultimate over, creaming straight sixes to reduce the equation to 15 off the last over. That came to debutant seamer Kuldeep Sen, who did really well to keep Stoinis quiet with three successive dots, before two closing boundaries reduced the margin of defeat to just three runs.
Rajasthan Royals 165 for 6 (Hetmyer 59* off 36, Gowtham 2-30) beat Lucknow Super Giants 162 for 8 (de Kock 39 off 32, Stoinis 38* off 17, Chahal 4-41) three runs.
