Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has commended Nitish Rana for the way he handled himself after an on-field altercation with Digvesh Rathi during the Delhi Premier League Eliminator. The contest between West Delhi Lions and South Delhi Superstarz saw tempers flare when Rana, after hitting Rathi for a six, mimicked the spinner’s signature notebook celebration. Rathi reacted angrily, leading to a heated exchange where both players had to be separated by teammates and officials. Despite the intensity of the clash, Rana refrained from escalating the matter in his post-match comments. He said he would never back down if provoked but stopped short of blaming Rathi directly. Ashwin, speaking on his YouTube channel Ash Ki Baat, lauded this restraint. “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,” Ashwin said. He highlighted how Rana managed the situation after a dominant performance with the bat. “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,” Ashwin noted. Both players were fined for the incident, with Rathi losing 80 percent of his match fees, while Rana was docked 50 percent. Still, Ashwin felt Rana showed maturity. “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. 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 said.
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West Delhi Lions went on to lift the DPL 2025 title.
