India and Pakistan clash at the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Melbourne produced an instant classic. In a dramatic chase, India scored the winning run off the final delivery of the match in front of a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground and thus started their tournament on a thrilling note.
Virat Kohli rightly deserved the praise for producing one of the greatest innings in T20I history with few even calling it as the best ever. The contest had several notable performances including Arshdeep Singh’s spell with the new ball, Hardik Pandya’s middle-overs burst before he joined forces with Kohli to reignite India’s chase, Kohli’s mind-boggling six off Haris Rauf and Ravichandran chipping the final delivery to seal the win.
But before that chip, Ashwin proved why he’s called a thinking cricketer as he produced perhaps the greatest leave in T20I history.
With two needed off one, Pakistan left-arm bowler Mohammad Nawaz was under pressure to bowl a dot ball and if not then allow just a single to force a Super Over.
Ashwin, a right-hand batter, correctly anticipated that Nawaz will fire it down the leg-side to cramp him for room. And he moved inside the line of the ball and left it alone for the wicketkeeper to collect it way outside the leg-stump.
The umpire signalled it as a wide, leaving the equation to 1 off 1. And the rest is history.
But it’s quite possible that Ashwin’s bold move would have backfired if the ball had turned after pitching.
In an interview posted on BCCI.tv, Ashwin quipped he would have announced retirement had things gone differently.
“Somebody asked me if that Nawaz ball had turned and hit you on the pads, what would you have done?. I said I would’ve quickly rushed to the dressing room picked up my Twitter and said ‘Thank you for all the great times I have had in my cricketing career. It was a wonderful journey (laughs)’," Ashwin said.
India have won both their Group 2 matches to take the top spot and will next return to action this Sunday when they square off against South Africa.
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