Chennai Super Kings (CSK) spinner R Ashwin recently shared that he had to take the 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 Sunday, March 23 as well. SRH scored a massive 286 runs in the first afternoon game of the season on CSK and the Mumbai Indians (MI) was scheduled to take place later that same day as well.

“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.

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Like the SRH’s win over RR in Hyderabad, the match between the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Gujarat Titans (GT) was also a very highscoring affair at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad as well.

“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 said.

“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,” R Ashwin concluded.