Shikhar Dhawan Taunts Ravichandran Ashwin Over Mankad

Kings XI Punjab’s Ravichandran Ashwin went down in infamy during IPL 2019. Earlier in the IPL season, the Rajasthan Royals were playing against Ashwin’s KXIP when an incident occurred. Rajasthan’s Jos Buttler was in fine form during the match, when Ravichandran Ashwin was at the bowler’s end.

Buttler was at the non strikers end and was slowly edging out of the crease as Ashwin took his run up. But then, the KXIP skipper performed a very cheeky move by knocking off the bails on the non-striker’s end. At that time, Buttler was out of the crease and not paying attention, and hence, he was out.

Now, a few matches later, Ravichandran Ashwin was back to his old tricks again, this time, against Delhi. Ravichandran Ashwin tried to ‘Mankad’ Shikhar Dhawan, but the Delhi Capitals batsman was too smart for him. When Ashwin went for the Mankad, Dhawan backed into the crease right away.

When Ravichandran Ashwin turned to return to his run-up, Dhawan knelt down and gestured as if to flex his muscle. During the next delivery Dhawan stuck his bat firmly in the crease. Then, he did something of a cross between a twist and fit, driving his point further home. It was his way of saying that ‘not all batsmen back-up too far’.

In the end, Delhi sealed victory over the Kings XI Punjab in a 5-wicket triumph. Punjab’s next match will be against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on the 24th of April. Meanwhile, Delhi will square off against the Rajasthan Royals tomorrow night at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

The Capitals are currently third in the IPL 2019 table behind the Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians. On the other end of the scale, the Kings XI Punjab are tied in 5th with the Sunrisers Hyderabad.