There was a bit of pre-match banter on Tuesday at the Ranji Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, where Mumbai Indians will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday in their second game in IPL 2024. Former MI captain Rohit Sharma recreated Kolkata Knight Riders bowler Harshit Rana's flying-kiss send-off in front of Mayank Agarwal and the SRH batter's reaction was unmissable.
In SRH's opening game last week at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata against KKR, Rana ended Mayank's brisk start, dismissing him in the final over of the powerplay. And in jubilation, the KKR pacer gave him a send-off with a flying-kiss gesture as Mayank stared back.
On Tuesday, during MI and SRH's practice in Hyderabad before the eighth match of IPL 2024, Rohit recreated the moment and Mayank couldn't stop laughing. Sunrisers did post pictures from the moment, captioning it: "Flying kisses and friendly rivalries," but they deleted it minutes later. The pictures, however, went viral immediately.
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Harshit's celebration, however, did not go down well with former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who lashed out at the youngster on air. He said: "He should not have done that. Did the batsman do anything to him when he was hitting him for sixes? Cricket can be played without these antics. It's the age of television. I understand that. Celebrate with your teammates but no need for such antics for the opposition."
{{/usCountry}}Harshit's celebration, however, did not go down well with former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who lashed out at the youngster on air. He said: "He should not have done that. Did the batsman do anything to him when he was hitting him for sixes? Cricket can be played without these antics. It's the age of television. I understand that. Celebrate with your teammates but no need for such antics for the opposition."
{{/usCountry}}It did not go down well with BCCI as well as Rana was slapped with a heavy fine for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct in two offences.
"Rana committed two Level 1 offences under Article 2.5 of the IPL's Code of Conduct. He was fined 10 percent and 50 percent of his match fees for the two respective offences," an IPL release stated. "Rana admitted to the two offences and accepted the Match Referee’s sanction. For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee's decision is final and binding."