Pakistan's Haris Rauf is known for his quirky celebrations after taking a wicket and the pace tearaway caught eyes with another unique act in the Melbourne Stars jersey. The 28-year-old Rauf came up with a 'COVID-safe' celebration, where he gestured to sanitize his hands and put on a mask after taking the wicket of Kurtis Patterson.
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It all happened during the third over of the Big Bash League (BBL) contest between Perth Scorchers vs Melbourne Stars. Rauf bowled a delivery that was angling away outside off stump, tempting Patterson to go for a cover drive. But the batter nicked it to the keeper Joe Clarke, which was followed by Rauf's hilarious celebration.
Rauf acted to take out sanitizer from his pocket moments after the umpire raise his finger. The Pakistan seamer then pulled out a mask and wore it, leaving his teammates and even the commentators in splits.
Rauf finished with figures of 2 for 38 in his four overs as Perth Scorchers scored 117 runs off the last 10 overs to take their total to 196/3.
After Patterson's early departure for eight, Nick Hobson scored 46 while wicketkeeper Laurie Evans notched up 69 before getting trapped off Rauf's delivery in the 12th over. Skipper Ashton Turner then chipped in with a 26-ball 47, helping Scorchers put up an intimidating total on the scoreboard.
{{/usCountry}}After Patterson's early departure for eight, Nick Hobson scored 46 while wicketkeeper Laurie Evans notched up 69 before getting trapped off Rauf's delivery in the 12th over. Skipper Ashton Turner then chipped in with a 26-ball 47, helping Scorchers put up an intimidating total on the scoreboard.
{{/usCountry}}It is not the first instance of Rauf coming up with never-seen-before wicket celebrations. He had previously made the headlines with the throat-slashing celebration.
Rauf gestured by motioning to slit his throat, accompanied by an aggressive gesture towards the batsman. After receiving criticism for the throat-slashing gesture being too aggressive, he had brought out the ‘adaab’ celebration.
Rauf, who was a part of Pakistan's T20 World Cup 2021 squad that made it to the semi-final, was recently in the news for sharing a picture of a signed CSK jersey from MS Dhoni that he received from the Chennai Super Kings captain.
Taking to his official Twitter account, Rauf wrote, "The legend & capt cool @msdhoni has honored me with this beautiful gift his shirt. The "7" still winning hearts through his kind & goodwill gestures. @russcsk specially Thank you so much for kind support."