Kolkata Knight RidersEngland opening batsman Phil Salt mocked fellow uncapped pacer Harshit Rana over his one-match ban in IPL 2024.
Harshit Rana was found guilty of violating the Indian Premier League’s code of conduct in the 7-wicket win against Kolkata Delhi capitals on April 29th. The right sailor had committed a Level 1 offense under Article 2.5 of the IPL Code of Conduct for his half-flying kiss celebration after taking the wicket of Abhishek Porel in the match.
Due to his actions, the IPL authorities have canceled 100% of Harshit Rana’s match fees and he has also been banned for one match. He served this ban during KKR’s victory over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium after 12 long years of waiting.
Phil Salt trolls Harshit Rana during the team meeting after the win against Mumbai Indians
Addressing the team in the dressing room after Calcutta’s win at Wankhede, Phil Salt took a brutal swipe at Harshit Rana over his one-match suspension. Salt, who has scored 397 runs in 10 games this season, trolled the seamer in front of all his teammates and KKR managing director Venky Mysore.
What a team 💜 what cohesion💜
Hard shit got kissed🤣 pic.twitter.com/kxDxak2g27— Venky Mama (@venkymama100) May 4, 2024
Phil Salt particularly congratulated the bowlers who played an important role in the win at Wankhede vs MI after 12 years. Salt had mentioned the names of Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora. The Englishman almost took the name Harshit Rana before he realized he was banned from the game.
Salt quickly backed away, started laughing himself and the entire dressing room burst out laughing. Harshit Rana took it rather lightly and he too smiled. The opener then said that Rana would play the next game before making the flying kiss gesture that initially led to the New Delhi-based bowler being banned.
“Well done guys. All sailors, Starc, Vaibhav. Well, actually no (laughs). You have the next game (makes a flying kiss gesture). Well done, boys,” said Phil Salt.
Despite his one-match suspension, the Knight Riders did not miss out on the services of Harshit Rana in their 24-run win against Mumbai. In the 1st innings, Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey alone were responsible for scoring 169 runs.
In the 2nd innings, KKR’s bowling front, led by IPL’s most expensive player Mitchell Starc, had done a surprisingly good job and completed the task comfortably. Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell picked up a pair of wickets each and posted an economy rate of 5.50 (both Varun and Narine) and 7.50 respectively.
Mitchell Starc took his best bowling figures of 4/33 to help his side maintain their position at the second spot in the IPL 2024 points table.
Harshit Rana is fighting to start against Lucknow Super Giants
After serving his one-match ban against Mumbai Indians on May 3, Harshit Rana is in the running to make his return tonight. The Knight Riders will take on the Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium. A win tonight could see KKR dislodge Rajasthan Royals at the top of the points table due to their better net run rate.