Virat Kohli started saying stuff I don't want to repeat: Kesrick Williams on getting sledged by India captain

Virat Kohli and Kesrick Williams were involved in a funny sledging incident during a T20 match between India and West Indies in Hyderabad last year.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Kohli had imitated Williams's notebook celebration during a T20I in Hyderabad last year
• Kohli was at the recieving end of Williams's celebration before that in a T20I in Jamaica in 2017
• Williams revealed that Kohli again tried to sledge him in the 2nd T20I of the 2019 series in Thiruvananthapuram

West Indies fast bowler Kesrick Williams has opened up on the sledging incident between him and Indian captain Virat Kohli during a T20I match last year and revealed details about what happened that evening in Hyderabad.

Kohli had imitated Williams's famous notebook celebration, gesturing that he had ticked off the pacer's name from his list, after hitting him for a six during India's 208-run chase. Kohli had smashed his T20I career-best knock of 94 at an astonishing strike rate of 188 to see India home in the match.

Williams had done it first after getting Kohli out in a T20I match in Jamaica in 2017 which the superstar Indian batsman did not forget and made sure to remind the West Indian about it last year.

Williams opened up on the incident in Hyderabad, revealing some of the things which were said between the two players.

“In the first game, when Kohli walked in to bat, he walked straight to me and he was like ‘Hey, you got me in Jamaica the last time you bowled against me, it’s not going to happen here’. I was like this thing happened in 2017, this is 2019, this guy really studied this thing? I was like I can’t believe this guy,” Williams told Firstpost.

“So I bowled a ball, someone tucked it on to the leg side and I was running for the ball but he was running for a single and I almost butt on him so I stopped and let him pass, and then he looked at the umpire and was like ‘what’s going on?’, I am like mate, I am sorry I didn’t spitefully do it, I didn’t try to run into you. And from there he started. He started saying stuff that I really don’t want to repeat. He started saying all sorts (of things), I am like ‘Yo mate, can you just back (off)’. I was walking back and he was at the non-striker’s end and he’s like ‘This is not going to happen today, I am not going to make you get me out today, never, never you are going to get me out today’. I am like, ‘mate, can you just zip your mouth and bat? Just bat, just play the game and please leave me alone’. And he said some stuff.

“He finished the game and wrote me up in his notebook, I don’t know what notebook he had but he wrote me up in it and got on with his antics. He won the game, fair enough. When we left Hyderabad for Kerala, I was in the economy class and he was in the business class, he is looking back, watching me and smiling and he’s making a gesture. I am like ‘Yo, I’m going to dismiss you in the next game like for real’. I said, ‘the next game it’s going to be me and you’. Because I had him in my mind now. I am like you are not going to beat me again, never in cricket. This is not going to happen again.”

Williams then went on to add that Kohli tried to get under his skin in the next match at Thiruvananthapuram as well.

“In the second game, I was on the fine leg boundary and he’s sitting there, just staring at me and was like ‘Kesericcccc’. I mean obviously he beat me in the last game so he can do what he wants, he is on top...’Kesriccc’ (he went again), I am like I can’t wait for this guy to come and bat. A wicket falls and I am like I am really ready for this guy to come in because I want to get this guy out so badly tonight. I am confident enough that I will get him out,” Williams said.

“When he came to bat, he didn’t say much to me. And I got him out. And I could remember he did a celebration in a Test series where he pinned his lip. And when I dismissed him, the whole crowd went silent and I just told the guys, ‘Relax, let’s keep it silent and let’s just applaud the legend and let him go off. It’s fine. He’s gone. Let him go’. I just pinned my lip and walked back. No celebrations for him. I don’t want to celebrate. Let him go,” Williams said.