Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin has no one but himself to blame for the no-ball incident against Kolkata Knight Riders which cost his side an IPL match at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
KKR’s Andre Russell was yorked by Mohammed Shami off the last delivery of the 17th over when the hard-hitter was on three but to the horror of KXIP, the umpire signalled a no-ball as the visiting team was found to have one fielder short of the mandatory four inside the 30-yard circle. According to rules, it is not allowed in T20 cricket after the end of powerplay overs.
Ashwin was quite appalled by the incident. “Oh my god,” the commentator said. “Just three inside. That’s (a) schoolboy (error).”
The cost of the mistake was monumental as Russell exploded. With just 19 deliveries left in the entire innings, he took his score from three to 48 — including an eight-ball stretch where he went six, four, four, six, six, six, six, four.
He was caught on the fence in the final over but the damage was done as KKR finished at 218/4 and comfortably defended the total with Kings XI Punjab managing 190/4.
Russell also took 2/21 from three overs and said in a post-game interview he’d have to “get a bigger garage” after winning another car for ‘Man of the match’.
Here’s the video:
First the joy, then the disappointment – Bring back Russell https://t.co/7wVaJdjNNp via @ipl
— Aakash Biswas (@aami_aakash) March 28, 2019
