As the second Test between India and Australia moves towards a nail-biting finish, tensions between the two camps have flared up quite a bit, with captains Virat Kohli and Tim Paine getting into multiple duels on the field.
On the third day of the match at Perth, the Indian skipper was out caught at second slip, and while the catch was referred to the third umpire, it wasn't overturned on account of soft signal.
It led to quite a talkative Kohli on the field during Australia's second innings, which carried on until stumps, with both captains exchanging words.
"If he messes it up, it's 2-0,"Kohli said, which was picked up by the microphone after he and his teammates made a loud caught-behind appeal for Paine in the final over of the day.
The Australian captain did not hold himself back and replied "You've got to bat first, big head".
And this wasn’t the end of it.
The two teams returned for day four of the Test with overnight Aussie batsmen Uman Khawaja and Paine at the crease.
As the Aussie captain scored a half-century, and helped take his team’s lead past 200, Kohli was back at it, trying to distract a well-settled Paine.
The respective captains were seen exchanging words after Kohli decided to field close to the non-striker and on-field umpire Chris Gaffaney had to step in.
"You're the one that lost it yesterday. Why are you trying to be cool today?" Paine told Kohli.
"That's enough, that's enough," Gaffaney interrupted.
"Come on, play the game. You guys are the captains. Tim, you're the captain." Paine replied: "We're just having a conversation. There's no swearing... keep your cool Virat." Kohli said something which couldn't be picked up by the microphones.
A couple of balls later, the warring duo almost came close to chest bumping when the India skipper walked in front of Paine while he was completing a run.
‘Tim Asked Virat Where He’s Going for Dinner’
The hosts star-spinner Nathan Lyon played down the incident on day three.
"I think Tim just asked him where he was going for dinner that's all. I've played enough cricket against Virat to know what he's like, and I'm not worried about what he's doing or what India's doing," said Lyon.
"Virat is a great player, he plays on emotion, we all know that, and to be honest I'm not too concerned how Virat reacts or the way he conducts himself. I'm just worried about what we can control in the Australian dressing room and I thought as bowlers we came out today and performed pretty well," he said.
Kohli was his usual animated self but his on-field antics did not go down well with former Australian players Mike Hussy and Allan Border.
"Kohli is out of control... I don't like his attitude at the moment," Hussey was quoted as saying by Macquarie Sports Radio, while former captain Border told Fox Cricket: "I don't think I've ever seen any captain carry on like that."
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