There was some pre-match banter on Tuesday at the Ranji Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, where Mumbai Indians will face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday in their second match of IPL 2024. Former MI captain Rohit Sharma , recreated Kolkata Knight Riders bowler Harshit Rana. the flying kiss farewell in front of Mayank Agarwal and the SRH batter’s reaction was unmissable.
In SSRLast week’s opening match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata against KKR, Rana ended Mayankoff to a good start, dismissing him in the final of the power play. And in jubilation, the The KKR pacer bid farewell with a flying kiss gesture as Mayank stared back.
Tuesday, during MID and SRH’s training in Hyderabad ahead of the eighth match of IPL 2024, Rohit recreated the moment and Mayank couldn’t stop laughing. The Sunrisers posted photos of the moment, captioned: “Flying kisses and friendly rivalries,” but deleted them minutes later. But the images immediately went viral.
Harshit’s celebration, however, did not go down well with former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar, who lashed out at the youngster on air. He said: “He shouldn’t have done that. Did the batsman do anything to him when he was hitting him for six? Cricket can be played without these antics. This is the age of television .I understand that. Celebrate with your teammates but no need for such antics for the opposition.”
This did not go down well with the BCCI and Rana was fined heavily for violating the IPL code of conduct in two infractions.
“Rana committed two Level 1 offenses under Article 2.5 of the IPL Code of Conduct. He was fined 10 percent and 50 percent of his match fee for the two respective offenses “, said an IPL press release. “Rana admitted both offenses and accepted the sanction of the match referee. For level 1 violations of the code of conduct, the decision of the match referee is final and binding.”