Ex-India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has responded to the recent aggressive fight between Nitish Rana and Digvesh Rathi in the Delhi Premier League (DPL), hailing Rana for being restrained in his post-match comments. The fight broke out in the high-pressure Eliminator match, where tensions ran high between the West Delhi Lions captain and South Delhi Superstarz leg-spinner.
The two players exchanged words in the heat of the moment during the game. Things intensified when Rana, following his six off Rathi, imitated the bowler’s, which is Rathi’s notebook celebration. Rathi reacted furiously, and what ensued was a near physical confrontation as teammates and match officials had to intervene to part the two players. Following this controversy Ashwin reacted and mentioned about how Rana handled everything maturely to all of this.
“I just want to say one thing, in our beloved sport, if a bowler does something, if he emerges as a character, we are not willing to accept that. Maybe in the case of this fight between Nitish Rana and Rathi, the fault would lie with the spinner. But the respect for Rana has grown in my eyes,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’.
“It was Rana’s day. He hit 15 sixes. After the game, he was asked ‘What happened?’ The way he handled it was amazing. He said the fault could have been his or Digvesh’s. But he said that he was playing to help his team win, and Digvesh was doing that for his team. That spirit and heat are needed to play this game. It was easy for him to throw dirt on Digvesh Rathi, but he didn’t do it; he deflected the question,” he added.
Even though there was a fierce showdown, Rana avoided discussing the details during the post-match presentation ceremony. He preferred to keep his remarks short and simple, saying that he does not retreat when provoked. Ashwin praised this reaction by pointing out that it would have been tempting for Rana to hit back verbally in the media but instead he took the high road.
“My respect for Nitish Rana has grown multi-fold. As a spectacle, we all like to see this, but the matter of fact is that we don’t have to character assassinate anyone,” said Ashwin.
“It showed the real character of the man. It is very easy to bring someone down when you are in the euphoria of a win. But he chose not to do that. He gave the right response, and that was amazing,” he added.
Both the players were fined for their behavior Rathi was fined 80% of his match fee and Rana 50%. The controversy did not affect West Delhi Lions’ campaign as they went on to win the DPL 2025 trophy.
