The battle for the playoffs spot is heating up as Tim Southee, Eoin Morgan and R Ashwin were involved in a heated war of words during the IPL match on Tuesday between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Sharjah.

The incident took place after the first ball of the 20th over of Capitals’ innings as Southee, bowling for KKR, sent back Ashwin with a slower ball that the batter pulled towards deep square leg, where Nitish Rana took the catch. Before the India off-spinner could walk back to the dugout, Ashwin was involved in two heated exchanges, first with Southee and then KKR skipper Eoin Morgan, which was only broken up by KKR wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.

The incident followed on from Ashwin and Rishabh Pant running two off the sixth ball of the penultimate over of the innings – after the pair had secured a single, a throw at the non-striker’s end made contact with Pant before rolling away, leading to the batting pair taking home another run. It meant that Ashwin was on strike for the first ball of the 20th over before he succumbed to Southee, who had words to say when he took the wicket.

As Ashwin was walking away, Morgan too came up and exchanged a few words with the Capitals player. Nonetheless, Ashwin had his own say with the ball, dismissing the KKR skipper for a two-ball-duck with an edge to Avesh Khan at slip. The bowler was visibly animated as he ran past Morgan to celebrate the wicket.

The Knight Riders eventually won the match by three wickets to move to 10 points, while the Capitals have 16 points from 11 matches.