Virat Kohli was undoubtedly the hero for the Indian team but Ravichandran Ashwin's performance on the final two balls under pressure also deserves plenty of applause. Ashwin walked in to bat when India were needing 2 runs from 1 ball. Instead of trying something dramatic, he decided to leave the ball bowled by Mohammad Nawaz, helping India earn an extra run through wide. In a video that was shared on BCCI.TV, Ashwin made a cheeky retirement remark while contemplating 'what if that Nawaz ball had turned'.
The Indo-Pak contest turned out to be a nail-biter that saw many twists and turns in the game. With India needing 16 runs to win from the last 6 balls, Pakistan needed a big performance from Mohammad Nawaz. The spinner could've won the game for Pakistan had he not bowled a no-ball.
Despite the no-ball and the subsequent free-hit, Nawaz made a strong comeback by dismissing Dinesh Karthik on the penultimate ball of the over. The pressure, however, got to him on what should've been the final delivery but Ashwin showed his presence of mind by leaving the ball for a wide.
Speaking of the incident to BCCI.tv, Ashwin said: "Somebody asked me if that Nawaz ball had turned and hit you on the pads, what would you have done?. I said I would've quickly rushed to the dressing room picked up my Twitter and said 'Thank you for all the great times I have had in my cricketing career. It was a wonderful journey (laughs)'."
Ashwin kept his composure on the final ball of the match. He hit the ball over the mid-off fielder as India took a single to successfully complete the run-chase.
The off-spinner's performance with the bat has been lauded by many on social media. Even Virat Kohli said that Ashwin used 'Dimag ke upar extra dimag' when he left the Nawaz ball for wide. It is probably because of this maturity that Ashwin was preferred over Yuzvendra Chahal in the high-pressure match.