Kumar Sangakkara praises Ravichandran Ashwin's "sacrifice"

MUMBAI: Rajasthan Royals' director of cricket and head coach, Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara, is mighty pleased with Ravichandran Ashwin's "sacrifice" for the team's cause, after the cricketer retired himself out in the match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Sunday to allow a better finisher to come in and tonk the ball a few times to boost their score.

Whether it had been planned by Ashwin or not, but after pushing Avesh Khan to cover for a single, he kept running after completing the run and stopped only after reaching the dressing room. The fact that Riyan Parag walked out to bat straightaway means the team was expecting such a move from Ashwin.

Ashwin's batting partner at that time, Shimron Hetmyer struck Khan for sixes of successive deliveries and Parag too struck a big six before getting out, going for another big one off the penultimate delivery of the match to boost RR's score to 165 for six.

The winners of the inaugural IPL edition then restricted LSG to 162/8 for a narrow three-run win.

Royals coach Sangakkara praised Ashwin, saying, "Ashwin himself was asking from the field as well, and we had discussed it just before that, as to what we would do. I thought the way Ashwin handled that situation, walking in (in the 10th over) under pressure, the way he batted to support the team. And then finally, (he) sacrificed himself in terms of being retired out, (which) was just magnificent," said Sangakkara. (IANS)

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