Star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, one of the architects of Rajasthan Royals’ four-wicket win against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Eliminator, believes the victory has brought back the confidence as the side gears up for the final push in the second qualifier against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The 37-year-old also revealed that he was not able to complete his action the way he wanted to because of an abdominal injury in the first half of IPL 2024. In his first nine games of the season, Ashwin picked up just two wickets at an economy of 9.00. In the next four, he grabbed seven at 6.81. That included 2 for 19 in four overs on Wednesday.

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“Truth be told, (in) the first half of the season, my body wasn’t moving at all. I felt like I wasn’t able to complete my action on many occasions. I had a little bit of an abdomen injury as well. So I couldn’t really get through it a lot,” said Ashwin after being adjudged the Player of the Match.

“But having committed to your franchise and the kind of boys we have in the dressing room, I put my body on the line in many of the games. For me, it was more about the rhythm, and (about) hitting the right lengths. You come from Test-match mode, your body also needs to get into it… I mean, I am ageing, so it’s not that easy anymore.

“But as the tournament went on… the amount of repetitions I need for the T20 game is a lot; I actually bowl a lot off the game time as well. I needed that amount of bowling time to get into the rhythm,” he added.

The victory snapped the Royals’ five-match winless streak and helped them inch closer to that title, which they had won in the inaugural season in 2008. At one point, they had eight wins in nine games and looked favourites to finish in the top two after the league stage. But four consecutive losses, coinciding with Shimron Hetmyer’s injury and Jos Buttler’s exit for national duty threw cold water to their plans.

After missing four games, Hetmyer returned for the Eliminator and blasted an unbeaten 26 off 14 balls to help RR cross the line.

“We haven’t done incredibly well over the last few games. Our batting found it a little tough to put par-plus scores on the board. We lost Jos Buttler; Shimron Hetmyer was injured – some crucial blows at the top of the order and in the middle. It’s not easy for any team to come out of that. I thought we were a bit rusty chasing 170 (173), but that confidence will come right back into the dressing room now,” he reckoned.