Gavaskar, Doull lambast SRH crowd for unruly behaviour, 'Kohli' shouts directed at LSG during IPL 2023 tie

Former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Simon Doull later criticised the unruly behaviour of the crowd, who also broke into "Kohli" chants during their act.

In an otherwise comfortable win for the Lucknow Super Giants against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday, which put them back in contention for a place in the playoffs as IPL 2023 rolls towards the final phase of the league stage, the game witnessed an ugly scene involving the crowd after they were left furious with a bizarre call from the umpire. Former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Simon Doull later criticised the unruly behaviour of the crowd, who also broke into "Kohli" chants during their act.

Gavaskar, Doull blast SRH crowd for unruly behaviour

It happened in the 19th over of SRH's innings when third umpire overturned a review on no-ball made by LSG explaining that the batter was slightly crouching. The decision did leave commentators and the two SRH batters shocked as Heinrich Klaasen was seen having an animated discussion with the on-field umpire as well.

While the batters had moved on, with SRH getting a boundary on the next ball, home crowd remained disappointed. There was some argy-bargy during that over before objects were thrown at the LSG dug out which saw the umpire halt the game. They rushed towards the dug out to intervene as LSG members moved away from the dug out and stepped on to the field with Hyderabad witnessing an ugly scene.

Gavaskar, however, criticised the Hyderabad Cricket Association for not providing a proper dug out for the players and the team staff. He said: “What’s hard to understand is most dugouts have what we call flexi-glass. Here we have beach umbrella kind of things, which is no protection. Come on, the Hyderabad Cricket Association can provide the proper dugouts rather than these makeshift things you see. Obviously these are a problem, an issue.”

The disruption from the crowd continued as they soon broke into "Kohli, Kohli" chants, targetting LSG in the wake of the infamous spat at the Ekana Stadium on May 1.

“They’ve actually made it worse for their own team,” said Doull on commentary. “It’s disappointing what they’ve done, we won’t go into the details of what they’ve done but it’s really disappointing.”

Well, more than affecting LSG players, the incident saw SRH lose their momentum as they managed just 13 runs in their last nine balls. A furious Klaasen later said: “I’m disappointed with crowd to be honest, that’s not what you want at your home venue. You want people to want to play at your home venue so very disappointed. That broke a lot of momentum. Some not so great umpiring decisions being made but that’s part of the game and you have to get over it and go on with life.”

Nicholas Pooran's blitzkrieg knock later helped LSG seal a stunning seven-wicket win.