India’s veteran spinner R Ashwin does not hold back when it comes to teaching batters a lesson. While he usually keeps them on their toes with his bowling variations, Ashwin also challenges non-strikers with his occasional pauses in bowling stride. In the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, Ashwin has threatened to run out two Australian batters- Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith while they were trying to gain an unfair advantage.
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However, on both these occasions, Ashwin only threatened to whip off the bails but did not do it. In the first Test, Ashwin silently warned Labuschagne when the batter was moving too far ahead of the popping crease. Meanwhile, on the Day 3 of the second Test, Ashwin left Steve Smith in tatters as he pulled off in his stride while bowling.
In the 15th over of Australia’s second innings, as Ashwin was getting ready to bowl to Labuschagne, he suddenly paused in his bowling stride and turned around. Steve Smith, who was advancing a bit, panicked and desperately turned around to avoid getting run out. Ashwin, meanwhile, just gave a cheeky smile. Virat Kohli, who was standing in the first slip, just could not control his laughter at this.
Watch the video here:
Coming to the second Test, India won the match comfortably, by six wickets. Australia, after starting from 61/1 faltered big time as they lost their nine wickets for just 52 runs and could only set a target of 115 runs for India. The Rohit Sharma-led team then comfortably chased it down with Cheteshwar Pujara (31*) and KS Bharat (23*) finishing things off for the hosts. Ravindra Jadeja was named Player of the Match for his nine wickets in the match.