Match No.13 of the 18th edition of the IPL took place between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Punjab Kings (PBKS). Punjab Kings won this match with ease while chasing the target of 171, which was achieved within 16.2 overs, scoring 177 with just 2 wickets.
The main highlight of this match was a comic exchange between Delhi state player (currently playing for LSG in IPL) Digvesh Rathi and his teammate Priyansh Arya, who was opening for PBKS.
Such action has led Digvesh Rathi to land in trouble; here’s how the actions unfolded.
PBKS won the toss, and as per the condition of Ekana Cricket Stadium, they decided to bowl first. LSG put the fighting score of 171 with the loss of 7 wickets, in which Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, and Abdul Samad were the main contributors.
PBKS kicked off their innings by sending Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya at the opening. Prabhsimran started strong by hitting a couple of boundaries in the 1st and 2nd over, giving a strong powerplay start to Punjab.
For the 3rd over, captain Rishab Pant introduced 25-year-old mystery spinner Digvesh Rathi, who was welcomed by a four on a half volley delivery by Priyansh. In just the next delivery, Priyansh tried to hit a massive swish that was edged, and the ball went to slip, only to be fumbled by Mitchel Marsh.
During the fifth delivery of the over, Priyansh tried to dismiss the ball into the stand on a quick, short ball delivery, which was mistimed and got straight up. Priyash got caught by Shardul Thakur in the mid-off position, and that’s where the scene unfolded.
While Priyansh was walking off to the pavilion, Digvesh rushed to him and sent him off with the notebook celebration. This celebration is a symbolic gesture made by bowlers, signifying that the bowler has marked his name under his books of wickets.
Amidst this, Priyansh didn’t react and simply walked back, denoting that he simply took this send-off as teasing banter by his Delhi teammate. However, the umpires weren’t so pleased with this action and quickly intervened by issuing a warning to Digvesh Rathi for his gesture.
Here’s the clip of the incident:
Priyansh and PBKS were the ones who had the last laugh, where PBKS won by 8 wickets, and the match fee of Digvesh was slashed by 25%. He committed a Level 1 offense under Article 2.5, and LSG also received one demerit point on the fair-play tally board.
Showing aggression after taking a wicket is part of a bowler’s nature, but on this former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar stated that displaying aggression is a sign that the bowler wasn’t expecting a wicket.
This incident might have jogged the memory of every cricket fan where the same action took place between Virat Kohli and Kesrick Williams. In 2017, when India was touring West Indies during a match in Jamaica, Kesrick took the wicket of Kohli and sent him off with a similar notebook gesture.
Dive into more heated moments and comebacks in our Weekly Sports Betting News Round-Up.
Fast forward to 2019, West Indies and India met again for a T20i game, where Kohli smashed Kesrick and returned the favor by mimicking the notebook gesture with his bat.
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