Virat Kohli and I reacted out of passion, says Ravichandran Ashwin

04/25/2019

Ravichandran Ashwin has stated that himself and Virat Kohli had reacted out of passion, referring to the fiery send-off by Kohli after Ashwin’s wicket in the encounter between Royal Challengers Bangalore’s and Kings XI Punjab on Wednesday. The tension between the two skippers was clearly palpable.

Kings XI Punjab had won the toss and put Royal Challengers Bangalore to bat. But the result did not turn out as well for KXIP, as RCB scored over 200 and won the match by 17 runs. In the final over of the innings, KXIP required 27 runs with the skipper Ravichandran Ashwin at the crease.

The all-rounder smashed an MS Dhoni like sixer over long on in the very first ball and followed it up with a similar shot in the next. However, the ball landed in the hands of Virat Kohli near the boundary rope and he did not miss to give a fiery send-off to Ashwin. The off-spinner was not very amused and threw away his gloves as he walked towards the dressing room. It did not make for a pleasant picture, but Ashwin played it down by claiming that the extreme reactions came out of passion.

"I just played with passion, so does he (Virat). That's it. As simple as that," he said at the post-match press conference, reported PTI.

KXIP were on top of RCB at various points in the game. The Bengaluru-based franchise was reeling at 81 for four in nine overs, but the pacers bowled quite ordinarily and allowed RCB to end up with 202 runs on the board. Even while batting, the Kings had crossed the hundred run mark before the tenth over but failed to capitalise on the platform. The skipper felt that the team lost its way in crunch situations many a time in the tournament, and thereby, ended up with a loss.

"Whenever we played those crucial moments, we won, and whenever we haven't, we have lost it, because the games are really really tight for us," the 32-year-old expressed.

The skipper also hinted that leg-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and all-rounder Moises Henriques, who is yet to play a game for Kings, are all set to make their comeback after injuring themselves on April 16.

"I think we have a couple of more players who get fit by the time we go to Hyderabad which will be a good boost for us,” the India player asserted.

KXIP started exceedingly well with wins in four out of six games, but have won only one out of their last five games. Given that all the teams are still in contention for the playoffs, the Mike Hesson-coached side have their task cut out as they need to win all of their three remaining league matches. The side’s next encounter would be against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 29 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, followed by the encounters against Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings at home on May 3 and May 5 respectively. The skipper believed that they need to take it one match at a time.

“You can look at it as three out of three now, but it is very important to see that we have to win one at a time. The last two games are home games for us where we played reasonably well," the right-hander remarked.

"We have played some good cricket to actually end up only winning five games in the season. It is not quite pleasing that way, but going into the next three games, I am pretty confident that we can turn it around," he added.

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Virat Kohli and I reacted out of passion, says Ravichandran Ashwin

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