Kolkata Knight Riders wicketkeeper has explained what instigated the verbal altercation between his team’s captain Eoin Morgan and Delhi Capitals off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin during Tuesday’s IPL 2021 encounter in Sharjah.
Ashwin and Morgan, usually two calm personalities on the field, indulged in a rare heated exchange near the close of the first half, where the Capitals were batting after losing the toss to KKR.
The two individuals shared a few angry verbal volleys at each other in the final over of the DC innings, just after Ashwin had been dismissed off the first ball facing pacer Tim Southee.
At the time, nobody could understand what led Ashwin and Morgan into having a go at each other. But after the match, Karthik revealed it was a incident triggered out of a deflected throw and run.
“Rahul Tripathi threw the ball, it hit Rishabh Pant, and then ricocheted. And Ashwin called for it and they (he and his partner Rishabh Pant) started to run. I don’t think Morgan appreciates that. I think he’s somebody who, when the ball hits the batsman or the bat, he expects them not to run in the spirit of cricket,”
Dinesh Karthik said at the post-match press conference, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Karthik refrained from offering a personal opinion on the matter as to who was right and who was wrong, and said he was just happy playing the “peacemaker” after he came in between Ashwin and Morgan and ensured none of them crossed the line.
“Again, it’s a very grey area, it’s a very interesting topic. I have my own opinion on it but at the moment I’ll just say I’m happy I played peacemaker and things have come to a good standstill right now,”
he said.
Importantly, no clause in the IPL playing conditions stops a batter from running for overthrows if the ball has rebounded off another individual – in this case, Ashwin’s batting partner Pant – unintentionally by the player involved.
Later in the match, when Ashwin got Morgan out nicking through to the first slip for a duck, he had an animated celebration near the space of the left-hander, clearly suggesting that the matter had not quite rested through Karthik’s peacemaking.
