IPL 2019: Ravichandran Ashwin plays down heated incident involving Virat Kohli

As the Royal Challengers Bangalore squared off against Kings XI Punjab in a crucial Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 contest the home team captain Virat Kohli was all charged up. That’s typical for Kohli but he had a lot more intent than he would usually show. In fact, when his opposite number Ravichandran Ashwin got out, he even made a few gestures mocking him all along hurling some usual abusive words.

It was a must-win game for RCB and it was the KXIP skipper who won the toss and elected to bowl first. When Ashwin himself got a wicket, that of Moeen Ali he celebrated it in a rather unusual manner and clearly indicated there was some reason behind it. Kohli in his batting innings was given a life early by Hardus Viljoen who grassed a regulation catch but it didn’t cost them a lot as Mohammed Shami made the batsman commit another mistake when on 13.

Ashwin celebrates Kohli’s dismissal

Ashwin then had his moment celebrating the dismissal and might have triggered Kohli who is clearly unforgiving when on the field. Later in the game, Kings XI were out chasing a massive 203-run target. Though they got off to a brilliant start powered by KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal and looked pretty much in the chase until the last half, a cluster of wickets in quick succession derailed them towards the end. Kohli was at the middle of all this as his pacers Navdeep Saini and Umesh Yadav troubled the KXIP batsmen, didn’t give away runs and got key wickets.

Ashwin was out in the middle in the final over bowled by Umesh as his team needed 27 runs to win. He hit the first ball for a six and attempted another biggie on the next but only to be caught by Kohli on the fence. It was the RCB skipper’s moment then and he gave Ashwin quite a send-off even making gestures of Mankading. The KXIP captain walking back saw all that and was so agitated that he threw his gloves off into the dugout.

Ashwin answering a question on the matter after the game didn’t give it a lot of importance and termed it as something that happens in the heat of the moment since they play with a lot of passion. “I just played with passion, so does he. That’s it,” he said.

In the end, it was the Royal Challengers who won the game, added two more points to their tally and lived to fight another day in the league.

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