As India continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Friday urged everyone to be more vigilant to fight the second wave of COVID-19.
India reported its highest-ever single-day spike in COVID-19 cases with over 2.17 lakh new cases and more than 1,100 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry on Friday.
Ashwin, who is currently playing for Delhi Capitals in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, also cautioned the citizens about the severity of the coronavirus.
"All I can say right now!! We are all spoiling towards ....sday. The virus is right at my doorstep, it will be at yours tomorrow. Let's try and follow best practices and my sincere prayers #COVIDSecondWave," Ashwin tweeted.
In the last 24 hours, 1,185 COVID-related deaths were reported in the country taking the death toll to 1,74,308. As many as 2,17,353 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in India in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases has gone up to 1,42,91,917.
The active number of cases stands at 15,69,743. In the last 24 hours, 1,18,302 people recovered from the disease. With this, the total recoveries reached 1,25,47,866.
Coming to the ongoing IPL, Rajasthan Royals clinched a thrilling win over Delhi Capitals, thanks to David Miller's 62-run knock followed by Chris Morris' cameo at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
With 27 needed off the final two overs, Morris stepped up to the occasion to take his side over the line with two balls to spare. He hit two sixes off Kagiso Rabada's penultimate over and accumulated 15 runs from it before smashing the winning run in the final over bowled by Tom Curran.
Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting feels Ashwin not completing his fours overs was a 'mistake on their behalf' despite the spinner just giving 14 runs in his three overs.
"That's certainly something that we will talk about when I get a chance to sit down with the team. He had bowled beautifully. Three overs, none for 14. Hadn't even conceded a boundary," said Ponting.
"Look he had a disappointing game in game one, but he has worked really hard in the last few days to make sure he adjusted and got things right in this game. I thought he bowled beautifully tonight. Probably a mistake on our behalf, and something we will be talking about later on," he added.
Delhi Capitals will next take on Punjab Kings here at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
( With inputs from ANI )
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