Ravichandran Ashwin was promoted up the order against the Delhi Capitals at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday. The Rajasthan Royals’ premier off-spinner scored his first T20 half-century, at No 3. However, his side face a eight wicket loss in the hands of Rishabh Pant and co. 

In the first innings, Ashwin came on to bat after RR had lost opener Jos Buttler (7 off 11) in the third over. The spinner’s primary job was to stabilise the innings. He first stitched a 43-run stand with Yashaswi Jaiswal (19 off 19) and then 53 runs with Devdutt Paddikal, who scored 48 runs off 30 deliveries. 

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Ashwin, himself, went on to make 50 off 38 balls with the help of four boundaries and two maximums. 

One of Ravi Ashwin’s sixes came against Delhi’s most-successful bowler this season – Kuldeep Yadav. On the fifth ball of the 12th over, the batter bent down quite low, almost a sitting stance, before coming down the wicket He reached the pitch of the delivery and launches it over long-off for a 87 metre six. 

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As soon as Ashwin hit the six, all that Twitter users were talking about was the unusual stance. 

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“Not Stand and Deliver, it’s Sit and Deliver for @ashwinravi99 @rajasthanroyals,” a Twitter user said. 

“He is the Torch bearer of cricket?… Every new things will seen from Ashwin only… he is trend setter??,” another one added. 

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“There is always something interesting with Ashwin. Be it bowling or batting. He always tries diff things,” a third one said, some calling it a ‘baithak’ shot. 

With the help of Ashwin’s fifty and Paddikal’s 48, RR posted a 160-run total in the first innings. However, riding on Mitchell Marsh’s all-round heroics, Delhi Capitals got their act together and chased the total with 11 balls to spare.