'Bad sportsmanship': Aussie batsman at centre of IPL 'disgrace'
Cricket fans have condemned Bangalore fast bowler Navdeep Saini over a controversial incident involving Aussie batsman Marcus Stoinis in the Indian Premier League.
The Royal Challengers quick was at the centre of an ugly incident in his side's 59-run loss to the table-topping Delhi Capitals.
'FINAL WARNING': Ravi Ashwin's stunning act amid Mankad furore
'WHAT A CATCH': Glenn Maxwell's insane moment stuns IPL
'BE BETTER’: Cricketer's 'unacceptable' act in celebration photo
Stoinis smashed a brilliant half-century to top score for the ladder-leaders, before a four wicket haul from Kagiso Rabada sealed the big win.
Aussie allrounder Stoinis' superb knock came after he was struck by a vicious beamer from Saini in the 15th over of his innings.
Stoinis was on 23 runs when he was struck on the gloves by a brutal full toss from the Bangalore quick.
The Aussie batsman wheeled away in pain after the ball crashed in to his fingers, but Saini was criticised for being a bad sport after failing to offer an apology right away.
The bowler could be seen putting his hand on his head, but the TV coverage failed to show him offering Stoinis any form of apology or concern, as the batsman whipped the glove off and took a moment to give his injured finger some time to recover.
The incident seemed to fire up Stoinis, who went on to bludgeon 53 runs off 26 balls in a spectacular knock for the Capitals.
Viewers with filthy with Saini, however, accusing the bowler of bad sportsmanship for not apologising to Stoinis over the contentious delivery.
Not cool by Saini at all to bowl a beamer at that pace intentionally and not apologize. #Stoinis #Saini #Virat #RCBvDC
— Sai krishna (@bsaikrishna) October 5, 2020
Stoinis gets called The Hulk a lot, normally because of his physique. However, the lack of an apology from Saini for the beamer has sent Stoinis into full "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry" territory. #IPL2020 #RCBvDC
— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) October 5, 2020
What Saini did today was really bad , not apologizing to Stoinis after that Beamer . Respect the game and your opponents and not get carried away . #RCBvsDC #NavdeepSaini #Stoinis #beamer
— Sreek_kiran (@sreek_kiran) October 5, 2020
Had saini apologised for the beamer they would be chasing less total comparatively. Stoinis went berserk post that incident💥
— Nitesh Bhadoria (@BhadoriaNitesh) October 5, 2020
@bhogleharsha What do you think about the beamer by #Saini? Saini's beamer to Stoinis is where RCB lost the match. That man was furious and rightly so. That was completely intentional.
— Sai krishna (@bsaikrishna) October 5, 2020
Stoinis looks like he still wants to bodyslam Saini for that beamer.
— Arindam Saha (@arindam_dr89) October 5, 2020
@IPL @RCBTweets Saini is a disgrace and so are you @imVkohli. He should have been dropped after hisi beamer at Rahul Tewatia. Today he did the same to Marcus Stoinis and your team did it again to Pant. It seems beamers are part of your game plan. You are a disgrace sir.
— Saurabh Jameshdpuri (@jameshdpuri) October 5, 2020
Like Saini not apologising to Stoinis for hitting him with a beamer. Nothing in the rules says he has to, but it was bad sportsmanship. Are you keeping up?
— Sherwin Le Monde (@stuartb16) October 5, 2020
Saini didn't apologize immediately after bowling a beamer. What kind of sportsmanship from our future star ???? #RCBvDC #Dream11
— Sujit Kumar Nayak (@SGfanforever45) October 5, 2020
Stoinis made Bangalore pay for a dropped catch on 30, and together with Rishabh Pant (37 off 25 balls) they put up 89 runs off 41 balls for the fourth wicket.
Bangalore came back with three quick wickets after Prithvi Shaw blazed 42 off 23 balls at the top of the order and provided a quickfire start of 63-0 in the first six overs.
Stoinis sets up big win for Delhi
But Stoinis’ arrival in the 12th over at 90-3 revived Delhi. He hit six fours and two sixes as fast bowler Navdeep Saini finished with expensive figures of 48-0 off his three overs.
The Aussie allrounder's late flurry saw Delhi set a whopping 4-196 in their innings.
Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer’s bold decision to introduce spinners Axar Patel (2-18) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1-26) inside the first six overs paid off.
Devdutt Padikkal holed out in the deep in Ashwin’s first over and Aaron Finch, who was twice dropped in the first two overs, was brilliantly snapped up by Pant behind the wickets in Patel’s first over.
Bangalore's top-scorer Virat Kohli (43) became the first Indian batsman to score 9,000 runs in Twenty20s when he reached 10, but the skipper couldn’t push the scoring rate against the spinners and was one of Rabada's four wickets.
“Delhi Capitals are playing some really good cricket,” Kohli said.
“Their batting is fearless, they have got pace, they have got good spinners. I won’t say they are unbeatable, but they will be hard to beat. Against this side, you have to bring your A game. We didn’t tonight.”
Rabada found the inside edge of Kohli’s bat and then claimed Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube and Isuru Udana in the space of four balls to earn Delhi's fourth win in five games.
Rabada finished with figures of 4-24 to restrict Bangalore's reply at 9-137.
“Kudos to the boys ... it is really important for us to get good recovery after the games," Iyer said.
"It is not easy when you are in the bio-bubble. We try to get into team activities and get to know each other well."
Iyer said he will miss senior legspinner Amit Mishra, who has been ruled out of the IPL with a finger injury. Mishra injured his ring finger attempting a return catch last Saturday while bowling against Kolkata.
with AP
Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.
