IPL 2022: Rajasthan's Ravichandran Ashwin concedes 21 runs for RCB

Former captain of the West Indies T20I team Carlos Brathwaite shared his opinion on Ravichandran Ashwin’s performance in Tuesday’s match of the Indian Premier League 2022. Brathwaite said Ashwin was the reason why the Rajasthan Royals lost against the Royal Challengers Bangalore since the game turned for the worse when he bowled on his last over.

Ashwin let RCB score 21 runs on the 14th over of the second innings when RCB bats. It cost the team its victory over the match, Brathwaite noted.

"That Ravichandran Ashwin over was when the game was lost. But the new ball was key for RR to get over the line. The way the RCB openers played is what I think set up the chase and even allowed a provision for them to lose a few quick wickets and still be in the game," Brathwaite said on ESPNCricinfo.

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri also shared his thoughts on Navdeep Saini who took the ball right after Ashwin.

"After the 21-run over from Ashwin, RR should have gone with their best bowler. You need a banker in such situations and I think Chahal should have bowled that over. They went to someone inexperienced. Out of the entire lot, Saini was the most inexperienced one. He went for 17 and RR were done and dusted. One just got the feeling that they lost the plot," Shastri said.

He said the Royals blundered as they did not go with an experienced bowler like Yuzvendra Chahal.

“Yuzvendra Chahal bowled a clever spell. Great variations, and the way he altered his flight, changed his pace. Even the way he got Faf du Plessis out, once he was hit down the ground for a four, he went more towards the legside to make sure he hit him where the fielder was at long-on,” the former coach said.

Match review

The match between RCB and RR was held Tuesday, April 5, 2022, at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. It is the 13th match out of 70 in the T20 cricket tournament of the IPL 2022 season.

RCB won the toss and chose to bowl in the first innings. RR took the pitch and was able to score 169 off 20 overs. The top three scorers for RR are Jos Buttler with 70 runs off 47 balls, Shimron Hetmyer with 42 runs off 31 balls, and Devdutt Padikkal with 37 runs off 29 balls.

RCB was able to win by 4 wickets with 5 balls left when they took the pitch and bat in the second innings. They scored 173 runs in 19.1 overs. This is their second win over three games in IPL 2022.

The three top scorers for RCB are Shahbaz Ahmed with 45 off 26 balls, Dinesh Karthik with 44 runs off 23 balls, and Faf du Plessis with 29 runs off 20 balls. The partnership between Faf du Plessis and Anuj Rawat was able to help the team to victory. They were able to score 55 runs for the team.