I was very happy with Ishant-Dhammika incident: Virat Kohli

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Colombo, Sep 1: India captain Virat Kohli does not mind if anger or aggression is channelised in the right direction which is what happened with a fiery Ishant Sharma after his altercation with Dhammika Prasad.

Ishant had an argument with the Sri Lankan pacer and his team-mate Dinesh Chandimal after Prasad bowled a barrage of short-pitched deliveries and the Delhi speedster returned the favour with a hostile spell at the end of the fourth day to get rid of Upul Tharanga and Chandimal. For the same incident, Ishant, Dhammika, Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne were charged for breaching ICC Code of Conduct.

"I was very happy with the incident (argument with Prasad) when he was batting. It happened at the right time for us because we had to bowl yesterday and they made him angry. It could not have happened at a better time for us," Kohli tried to look at the positive side of the incident.

The skipper said that so fired up was Ishant that he bowled for 19 overs without conceding a single boundary.

"And the way he (Ishant) bowled in the second innings, he didn't concede a boundary for 19 overs. That's the kind of pressure he created on those batsmen because of one incident. He bowled his heart out like he has always done when the Indian team has needed to defend scores in Test matches.

"An angry fast bowler is a captain's delight. I was really happy to see what happened yesterday and it switched some things on in the right ways. It had to be controlled but in the end it benefitted us," said Kohli.

PTI