'I thought 'Aaha, we have won' - R Ashwin reveals what went wrong for him against Rahul Tripathi in Qualifier 2

Delhi Capitals off-spinner R Ashwin revealed what went in his mind during the thrilling last over against Kolkata Knight Riders in the second qualifier of the Indian Premier League, which his team lost by three wickets to crash out of the tournament after a top-table finish in the league stage.

KKR, who were in cruise mode during the chase after a sensational opening stand of 96 runs between Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill, suddenly lost the plot to lose six wickets for nearly no runs in 23 balls to loosen their grip on a match they fancied themselves comfortably winning not too long ago.

Having slipped from 123/1 to 130/7, the Knight Riders needed 6 off the last two deliveries with Rahul Tripathi on strike. Ashwin, who had dismissed both Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine off consecutive deliveries, delivered one slight short and wide, enough for Tripathi to clobber over his head down the ground to secure a final berth with a nervous victory.

“The first four balls, I didn’t think much and it worked,” Ashwin said in a recent video interaction on his official YouTube. “And, before the fifth ball, I thought ‘Aaha, we have won! (Smiles)’. Then I thought about short boundaries, the dew and also predicted that he would jump down the track, which is why I bowled it slightly short. Tripathi has never hit me for a four in the past. Unfortunately for us, it came at the wrong time.”

Heading into the Playoffs, Rishabh Pant’s unit appeared to be the team to beat, having bossed both legs of the tournament to end at the pinnacle of the tally with 10 wins in 14 fixtures. However, despite the privilege of having an extra shot at the IPL final, DC floundered twice to take the exit route, as they had lost the first qualifier against MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings.

After the pinching loss, the Capitals coach Ricky Ponting admitted that it was the first instance of his team being outplayed in the tournament.

“I think today really is the only game that I feel that we’ve been outplayed in,” Ponting said “We didn’t bat well enough today, we didn’t get enough runs in the powerplay, we lost wickets too regularly through the middle of our batting innings. If it wasn’t for Hetmyer and Shreyas at the end, we weren’t looking anywhere near 130 odd, so we’ve been outplayed and we’ll talk about that when we make it back into the rooms after. It’s disappointing for us certainly to finish the way that we have.