IPL 2021: Ashwin and Morgan engage in war of words before Karthik steps in
Sep 28, 2021
Sharjah [UAE], September 28 : Delhi Capitals bowler R Ashwin and Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan were involved in a heated exchange after the former was dismissed by Tim Southee in the last over of the DC innings at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
DC skipper Rishabh Pant and Ashwin had picked a second run off the last ball of the 19th over and that seemed to have irked the KKR outfit as some consider it to be against the guidelines of Fair Play to take a run when the ball thrown by the fielder ricochets off the batter.
It finally needed former KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik to come and stop the heated chat. DC coach Ricky Ponting was also seen speaking to umpire Nitin Menon during the innings break. While one isn't sure about the topic that was discussed by the two, it could be the same point.
Meanwhile, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer and Lockie Ferguson scalped two wickets each while Tim Southee returned with one as KKR restricted DC to just 127/9 in their 20 overs. For Delhi Capitals, Steve Smith and Rishabh Pant both played knocks of 39 each.
Speaking after the DC innings, Smith said: "Not an easy surface to play on. With the new ball, the only boundaries we got was when they overpitched or Shikhar sort of made it into a half-volley. When you bowl that good, hard length, some are skidding a bit low and some are stopping on the surface. As the ball got a little bit older, it just held up and took a bit of spin as well. We were probably looking for somewhere between 140 and 150, we are below that but hopefully we can take a few early wickets, put some pressure on, squeeze through the middle and scrape throughout the whole 20.
"Our boys have been bowling exceptionally well, so hopefully we can start really well. It's just one of those wickets where you have to scrape and it's not an easy one to hit boundaries. We didn't hit a single six and that's pretty rare here in Sharjah. There was no real swing there, cross-seam and just rolling your fingers over the ball, slower balls and just good hard length, keep things pretty simple and just keep scrapping throughout the whole 20 overs."
