"I meditated for 10 minutes” - R Ashwin reveals interesting incident before CSK vs MI IPL 2025 match
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) spinner Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that he had to resort to drastic measures to not let the Sunrisers Hyderabad's (SRH) batting carnage against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) affect his bowling against the Mumbai Indians (MI) during the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) opening weekend.
SRH scored a mammoth 286 in the first afternoon game of the season on Sunday, March 23, while the high-profile clash between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Mumbai Indians (MI) was scheduled to take place later that same day.
The Orange Army posted the second-highest total in IPL history courtesy of Ishan Kishan's hundred and supporting cameos by Travis Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Heinrich Klaasen.
Ashwin mentioned that SRH's mauling had a significant impact on him, to the extent that it could have impacted the performance on his return to CSK after a decade.
"I was watching the SRH vs RR game before facing MI in the evening. After watching for a while, I took a break, drank some water, meditated for 10 minutes, and only then I left for the ground. I had to do that to forget and flush out what I watched, otherwise all of those boundaries will be on my mind while I bowl," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin finished with figures of 1-30 against MI at the Chepauk. He dismissed Will Jacks in the very first over of his spell. CSK's spinners kept things tight to restrict MI to 155 in the first innings while the batters chased down the score with five balls to spare.
"This game's man of the match should have been Vijaykumar Vyshak" - R Ashwin lauds impact player's contribution in PBKS' narrow win over GT
Much like the SRH's win over RR in Hyderabad, the contest between the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Gujarat Titans (GT) was also a very high-scoring affair at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
PBKS posted a mammoth 243-5 after being put into bat first. Priyansh Arya's fiery knock on debut, Shreyas Iyer's unbeaten 97, and Shashank Singh's explosive cameo contributed to the highest total at the venue.
In reply, GT mounted up a strong response to the run chase, and were arguably ideally placed after 14 overs. The Shubman Gill-led side needed 75 runs off 36 deliveries, and had eight wickets in hand. However, Vijaykumar Vyshak's introduction as an impact player in the 15th over turned things around. He conceded only 10 runs off his first two overs by executing the wide yorkers to perfection. His short spell completely dented GT's momentum and derailed their run chase.
"Actually, defensive bowling was what got Punjab through. After the match, Iyer and Ponting may praise bowlers for taking wickets, but secretly, this game's man of the match should have been Vijaykumar Vyshak, I have no doubt in my heart about that. There are at least 10 awards after the match, half of the players from both teams get something or the other, but if someone bowls this well, there is no award for that. Super Striker, Four, Six, everything is there, but no Super Ball," Ashwin elaborated.
"I remember there was a sponsored award for the fastest ball of the day. That ball may have gone for a six, but the bowler will get an award for that. The day is not far when a bowler will just run out of the ground with the ball, refusing to bowl. High-quality bowlers like Starc, Cummins, Archer, and Theekshana are going for over 50 runs, so something is there," he added.
Vyshak was roped in for INR 1.8 crore by PBKS during the mega auction. He had made his IPL debut for RCB during the 2024 season.