Ashwin plays down animated reaction from his RCB counterpart Kohli

Virat Kohli celebrates R Ashwin's dismissal on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

As if the thrill of AB de Villiers smashing the ball around or even Nicholas Pooran causing some real damage of his own wasn't enough, there was quite a bit of drama otherwise too in the RCB vs Kings XI clash at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Wednesday night. It all had to do with two fiercely competitive cricketers, in this case, the respective captains.

When the two teams clashed earlier in Mohali there was some sort of confrontation between Virat Kohli and R Ashwin. It was no different this time around, with young Mayank Agarwal too dragged into it at the beginning of the RCB innings when Kohli was briefly at the crease.

Asked about what from the outside seemed quite unhealthy, Ashwin played things down. "I just play with passion and so does he [Kohli]. It's as simple as that," was all he would say on the matter.

He was more vocal about his team having let RCB off the hook with bat and ball, especially with the ball, 64 runs being given off the final three overs of the RCB innings. "I thought we lost our execution towards the end quite a bit. Sixty-odd runs off three overs wasn't desirable but we were in the chase all along. But we just couldn't finish it off. The teams that play the crunch situations go on to win, which we backed our senior players to do. It didn't quite turn out that way but that's how it's gone for us all through the tournament, all games have been close," said Ashwin.

Also read: IPL 2019: Both Virat Kohli and I react out of passion, says R Ashwin

For RCB though it was all about getting out of jail with the bat first after being 84 for 4 at the halfway stage and 122-4 after 15. That they went on to make in excess of 200 was down to a new approach. "In cricket it often is such that only little things need to change. When you lose a couple of games sometimes you play to try to not lose rather than trying to express yourselves," said Marcus Stoinis, who shared in a unbroken fifth wicket stand of 121 runs with De Villiers.

Also read: 'Virat Kohli will break Sachin sir's records'

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