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

Kings XI Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin played down the animated reaction from his Royal Challengers Bangalore counterpart Virat Kohli after taking his catch near the boundary rope saying both of them react out of passionWith 27 runs needed from the final over Ashwin hit the first ball for a six but on the very next delivery he hit one straight to Kohli at longon off Umesh Yadavs bowling Kohli celebrated in his typical usual self giving Ashwin a fiery sendoffAshwin on his part was also seen throwing his gloves in the dugout in angerI just played with passion so does he Virat Thats it As simple as that Ashwin said at the postmatch press conference here on Wednesday night after KXIP lost to RCB by 17 runsKXIP skipper said his team failed to come good during crunch situationsThree overs for 60 odd runs wasnt desirable but we were in the chase all along and I thought we couldnt finish it off in crunch situation That is what you back the senior players to do Didnt quite turn out the way we wanted That is exactly how that is gone for us the entire tournamentWhenever we played those crucial moments we won and whenever we havent we have lost it because the games are really really tight for us said AshwinThe 32yearold said KXIP lost the plot in middle overs despite Nicholos Pooran and David Miller bringing them back into the gameWhen you chase down 200 you ideally like one of your batsmen to make 7080 We were not in itWe were 105 in 10 overs or something like that We lost momentum similar to what RCB did in middle overs but I thought Nicholos Pooran played really well and he got us back into the gameI thought we were cruising at 4 overs 45 or 46 needed From there on it is quite disappointing that we could not finish the game on this groundAshwin felt it was important to curtail AB de Villiers as he could make a lot of difference in end oversI think Marcus Stoinis was 26 off 30 balls before the last over started So I dont think that was quite the parameter I think AB de Villiers is someone who definitely makes a difference in those end overs It is very important we curtail him Like I said our execution was all over the place towards the last twothree overs he saidIndia offspinner said 30 runs in two overs was getable here at Chinnaswamy track given the bowling attack of RCB which had crumbled a lot in this seasonI dont think it was really tilted It was a balance like 2 overs 30 is still getable in this ground against the bowling attack we have seen that has crumbled before he saidAshwin said had Miller connected one out of the park KXIP would have wonIf David Miller would have connected one out of the ground it was like I said it was that close Just that we could not close out the game That is really been our downside of the year so farHopefully we can correct it in the coming games he saidOn winning three out of their remaining games now Ashwin said it is important to take one game at a timeI 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 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 he saidWe 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 saidMeanwhile Marcus Stoinis lavished praise on de Villiers for his matchwinning knock by saying What a superstar He showed it again how good he isIn the matchthe final overs flourish provided by AB de Villiers in partnership with Marcus Stoinis with as many as 64 runs coming off the last three overs proved to be the deciding factor as RCB recorded a 17run win at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on last nightCatch up on all the latest IPL News and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates