Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar criticized KKR seamer Vaibhav Arora for his brilliant decision to seek a review against Delhi Capitals closer Kuldeep Yadav.
The incident happened last night at the Eden Gardens stadium Kolkata Knight Riders‘Backward game against them Delhi capitals. KKR defeated the visitors by 7 wickets in a one-sided affair in front of home fans and are 2 points ahead of third and fourth placed Chennai and Hyderabad.
Great evening for KKR bowlers
After winning the toss, Rishabh Pant started batting first and it did not prove to be the wisest decision. Delhi Capitals struggled right from the start as they lost four wickets in the powerplay over itself. It was Vaibhav Arora who had scored Prithvi Shaw’s first breakthrough with a score of 13/7 caught behind against wicket-keeper Phil Salt.
Then Mitchell Starc took the wicket of his compatriot, the dangerous Jake Fraser-McGurk, for just 12 off 7. Vaibhav Arora was on target again when he cheaply chopped off the stumps of DC’s West Indian power hitter Shai Hope for 6 off 3. Harshit Rana then got rid of No. 3 batsman Abhishek Porel and posted a score of 18 out of 15.
Knight Riders’ spinners – Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine – then dominated DC in the middle overs. Chakravarthy grabbed three important wickets of DC captain Rishabh Pant (27 off 20), South Africa’s Tristan Stubbs (4 off 7) and impact player Kumar Kushagra (1 off 3).
Sunil Narine then removed set batter Axar Patel before Harshit Rana removed Rasikh Salem for 8 off 10 to restrict DC to a total of 157 in 20 overs.
What exactly motivated Sunil Gavaskar to thrash Vaibhav Arora?
But the incident that led Sunil Gavaskar to hit Vaibhav Arora happened during the last ball of the 18th over. Vaibhav had bowled an unplayable delivery to Kuldeep Yadav, who went over the line to play his delivery but ended up getting hit by him.
At first glance it had looked like the ball would miss the leg stump on its way, but Vaibhav Arora thought otherwise. He quickly rushed to Captain Shreyas Iyer and asked him to opt for the Decision Review System (DRS) immediately.
Then the ball tracking device proved that Vaibhav Arora was wrong in his assumption as the ball went past the leg stump without hitting it. It fascinated Sunil Gavaskar to condemn him for not thinking about his team and selfishly asking Shreyas to accept the review. The 74-year-old was seen in the commentary box when he made the remark.
“Shocking review. Absolute shock. What a waste of a review. Should have thought about this team. Look, there are 11 balls left. Kuldeep Yadav plays well. It is a 29-year partnership.” – Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
KKR will face MI next
After completing the double against Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2024 season, KKR will next face Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians. The Knight Riders have the chance to move one step closer to play-off qualification as a win would give them 14 points from 10 games.