West Delhi Lions captain Nitish Rana has opened up on the verbal altercation with South Delhi Superstarz spinner Digvesh Rathi during the Eliminator contest of the Delhi Premier League 2025 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Friday.

The left-handed batter revealed that Rathi started the confrontation and he is not someone who backs out when the other player pokes him. The spat happened after Rathi pulled out in his run-up and on the next ball, Rana decided to sway away. Rana then reverse-swept Rathi for a six and both players exchanged heated words with each other.

The two players had to be separated by the on-field umpires and other players also had to intervene.

Nitish Rana said via India Today, “It’s not about who’s right or wrong, he came to win the match for his team, and I came to win for mine. But respecting the game of cricket is my responsibility, and it’s his as well. He was the one who started it, I won’t say how or what happened, because that would be unfair. But yes, if someone pokes me or gets in my face, I’m not someone who will just sit quietly. Because this is how I’ve always played my cricket. If someone pokes me, and they think they’ll get me out by provoking me, then I can also hit back with sixes. What happened yesterday was an example of that.”

Meanwhile, it was Rana who had the last laugh as he scored a match-winning knock of 134 runs off just 55 balls with the help of eight fours and 15 sixes. The left-hander helped his team chase down 202 runs, and thus they qualified for the second qualifier against East Delhi Riders.

Rana once again played an unbeaten knock of 45 runs off just 26 balls against EDR to take his team to the final of the tournament.