Ravichandran Ashwin found himself in the thick of the things after 'mankading' Jos Buttler during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday. The controversy left the cricket fraternity divided with their opinions on social media. Incidentally, the Kolkata Police used the 'mankad' controversy in a creative way to send a message to the residents of the city through their latest campaign. The Kolkata Police clubbed the picture of Jos Buttler's dismissal along with a photo which showed a car crossing the line, with a statement which read, "Crease or road, you will regret, if you cross the line".
The 'mankading' incident took place after Buttler (69) and skipper Ajinkya Rahane (27) got Rajasthan off to a brisk start in the chase.
Buttler, in particular, looked in a destructive mood as he didn't spare a single KXIP bowler and struck eight boundaries and two hits over the fence to notch up his fifty in just 29 balls.
But just when it seemed KXIP were running out of ideas, skipper Ashwin did the unthinkable as Buttler became the first victim of 'mankading' in the history of IPL, in the 13th over with Rajasthan Royals scoreboard reading 108 for two.
The 'mankading' incident, however, is not the first-time when the Kolkata Police used an incident from the cricket field to create a traffic campaign.
Earlier, after Cheteshwar Pujara scored his first Test century in Australia during the first Test against the hosts in December 2018, the Kolkata Police clubbed his celebration picture with a picture of a person wearing seat belt while driving his car. Kolkata Police had posted the picture on their official Twitter account with "Defense should be like Pujara" written on it.