Ravichandran Ashwin burns Ben Stokes with DRS jibe as similar incident strikes in New Zealand vs Australia 2nd Test

Ravichandran Ashwin took a brutal dig towards England captain Ben Stokes after Mitchell Marsh’s LBW out withstood with the Umpire’s call after DRS, which only intensified Australia’s 2nd Test win against New Zealand. It’s been just 2 days since the India Vs England 5-match Test series concluded and Ashwin has already started the post-series sledding rituals.

England’s shambolic 4-1 loss in the series had Ravichandran Ashwin playing a key part with his outstanding off-spin bowling. He finished as the highest wicket-taker of the Anthony De Mello trophy 2024 series with 26 wickets to his name. He saw off competition from opposing finger spinner Tom Hartley who scalped 22 wickets in total.

What did Ravichandran Ashwin say about Mitchell Marsh’s Umpire’s call incident against New Zealand?

The 2nd Test between New Zealand and Australia started a day after the 5th Test between India and England in Dharamshala which ended on day 3. As the series came to an end, Ravichandran Ashwin thought it would be a good time to catch up on Australia’s exciting run chase against the Kiwis.

Out of all the things he watched in the match, Ravichandran Ashwin particularly liked the unsuccessful DRS review from Mitchell Marsh. What had happened was that one of Ben Sears’ leg-side angled delivery struck Marsh’s pads with New Zealand erupting in a loud appeal. The Umpire raised his finger but Marsh thought it should be reviewed so he asked for it.

By the first look of the delivery, it seemed that Marsh had 50-50 chances of staying at the crease and the DRS showed that the ball would have just clipped the leg stump. The all-rounder had to depart for 80 off 120 with Australia still requiring another 59 runs for the victory.

Mitchell Starc who arrived after Marsh’s fall, departed on the very next ball but Australia managed to earn the victory through a 61-run partnership between Pat Cummins and Alex Carey. Ravichandran Ashwin first shared his reaction to Ben Sears almost registering a hat-trick with a Tweet that read, “Ben Sears on a Hattrick now. OMG #AUSvNZ”.

Moments later, Ravichandran Ashwin tweeted about the Umpire’s call on Mitchell Marsh’s LBW challenge which remained in New Zealand’s favor. This is what Ashiwn wrote, “An umpires call to push this test to a nail-biting finish. Some support from England to Australia for (tick).”

That was a possible dig by Ben Stokes who last month asked for the Umpire’s call to be scraped away from the Decision Review System.

That particular LBW made the match even more interesting as Australia still needed more than 50 runs and they were down by 7 wickets. With that, Australia sealed their 2nd Test series win out of their last 3 against Pakistan (3-0), West Indies (1-1) and New Zealand (2-0).

Ravichandran Ashwin praises Pat Cummins and Alex Carey for guiding Australia to victory

Ravichandran Ashwin was also fond of the effortful partnership between Mitchell Starc and Alex Carey in that tough situation where the win could have fallen on New Zealand’s side. Ravichandran Ashwin hailed Cummins for displaying something legendary and was happy to see Carey score those runs.

Pat Cummins 👏👏legendary stuff and well done to Alex Carey 👌👌.

After the kind of summer Carey has had, all the backing from the team management has paid dividends.#AUSvNZ

— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) March 11, 2024

“Pat Cummins legendary stuff and well done to Alex Carey. After the kind of summer Carey has had, all the backing from the team management has paid a dividend.” – Ravichandran Ashwin wrote in another tweet.