"When you play for your country, there's so much passion and emotion" - Rahul Dravid plays down the Nabi-Rohit confrontation after 1st Super Over
Team India head coach Rahul Dravid played down the altercation between Rohit Sharma and Mohammad Nabi at the end of the first super over in the third T20I in Bangalore on Wednesday.
After both teams played out a tie in the 20 overs, the contest moved to the one-over battle to determine the outcome. With Afghanistan at 13/1 after five balls, Nabi swung and missed on a yorker from Mukesh Kumar before setting off for a bye.
However, the throw from wicketkeeper Sanju Samson deflected off Nabi's pads down to Virat Kohli at long-on. Yet, the batters ran two extra runs, much to the disgust of Rohit Sharma.
Nabi and Rohit were in a heated discussion following that, with the former seemingly having no problem taking the extra runs after the ball ricocheted off his pads.
At the press conference, Dravid addressed the situation and said:
"It can happen at the end. I think sometimes when you play for your country, there's so much passion and emotion. I think it is incredible that even in dead-rubber games when it gets down to the wire, that competitiveness comes out, that passion comes out."
"It's fine. It's part of the game. Some frustrations at times can happen but it is okay. It hit the non-striker and then it moved and I think it is fine, you know, you can run for those. To be honest, in the first T20I there was an incident where it hit the bat of our batsman and we ran a run as well. I think there's nothing to read into, there's nothing in the rules that stops you from actually running those runs. That's fine, it's part of the game," he added.
Unfortunately for Afghanistan, those extra runs did not make the difference, as India leveled the score sat 16 in their batting stint.
Thanks to that, the game went to a second Super Over, with India emerging victorious by 10 runs.
"Sometimes a little bit of that passion and emotion is really important" - Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid believed the controversial moment highlighted the passion between the sides, adding that it was healthy for the sport as long as it stayed in bounds.
Yet, things cooled off immediately as the sides turned their attention to the second Super Over.
"As long as it doesn't cross the line... that's why we have match referees and people who are there to look at these things. I think sometimes a little bit of that passion and emotion is really important. It shows that people care. I think as long as it doesn't cross the line, it's great," said Dravid.
With the win, India swept the three-match series 3-0, keeping their unbeaten T20I streak against Afghanistan intact.
They won the opening two games convincingly by six wickets to take an unassailable 2-0 lead before the Bangalore thriller.