Ashton Turner must have become a household name in India after the way he demolished the hosts in the fourth ODI on Sunday. The right-handed batsman, who had played just one ODI before and was included in the team only because Marcus Stoinis was unfit, played blinder of an innings to power Australia to a historic win. He scored an unbeaten 84 as Australia chased down 359 to register their highest-ever successful chase in ODIs.
One can take a measure of Turner’s innings’ impact by the fact that he bagged the Man of the Match in a game where two players had scored centuries while two registered nineties. Turner came to the crease when Australia were 229 for 4, needing 130 more from 83 balls. And Turner soon turned the game on its head by launching a stunning counterassault on the hosts. By the time his assault came to an end, Australia had chased down their biggest target in ODIs with 13 balls remaining. Turner’s 84-run knock came off just 43 balls and contained five fours and 6 maximums.
So it would not be surprising at all to think that Turner has become a household name in this cricket-obsessed nation. However, Shikhar Dhawan, who saw Turner’s demolition job from very close, struggled to recollect the Australian batsman’s name during the post-match press conference in Mohali on Sunday.
Dhawan lauded Turner’s effort but referred to him as “that guy”.
“He’s a new player but we knew that – he already (played). Of course, ‘that guy’ played a really good knock and took the game away from us,” Dhawan told the media.
“But if there wasn’t any dew it wouldn’t be possible to play those shots. Because of the dew those things just got away from us. Credit goes to him that he played a great knock,” he added.
Cricket Australia’s official website, meanwhile, covered the news in an interesting manner, reminding Dhawan about who Turner is. The caption of the article was: ‘Ash who? That guy leaves India reeling’ as Cricket Australia had a good laugh at Dhawan’s expense.
Here is a clip showing Dhawan calling Ashton Turner ‘that guy’:
