IPL 2019 | Ravichandran Ashwin credits Sam Curran, Mohammed Shami for brilliant death bowling

Chasing 167 to win, the Capitals were cruising along nicely with 144 runs on the board in the 17th over and a set Rishabh Pant and Colin Ingram on strike. They had added 62 runs for the fourth wicket and Delhi were in a touching distance of getting past the target. However, Shami and Curran had other ideas in their mind and brilliant death-over spells by the duo ensured that Kings XI won the game by 14 runs. Shami picked up two wickets while Curran scalped four, including a hat-trick, as Delhi lost seven wickets for just eight runs at the end.

A delighted Ashwin heaped praise on the pace duo for their sensational effort in the death overs for KXIP.

"When Rishabh hit the six, we just needed to hang in there. Credit to Shami and Curran. We were probably 25 runs short. We backed ourselves to defend with three spinners. All in all, dew also came in and played a factor," Ashwin said after the match reported India Today.

"I'd like to think we got out of jail. Not many times you defend that equation. Credit to Shami and Curran. We've seen Avesh bat before, Lamichhane bat before, so we just needed to hang on.”

Curran was brought into the side in place of big-hitting Chris Gayle and was also asked to open the batting with KL Rahul. The English all-rounder started on an attacking note at the top of the order and scored 20 off 10 before getting dismissed by Sandeep Lamichhane. 

"We were going to bat first even if we'd won the toss. We thought Chris wasn't there. We wanted to give Sam the license to go out and bat. We thought there was a bit of grip in this pitch, but it didn't turn out. We're a team with youngsters and experience," Ashwin explained.