"Cricket can be played without.."- Sunil Gavaskar's stern message to Harshit Rana

Former Indian batsman turned renowned cricket pundit, Sunil Gavaskar was not fond of the gesture thrown by Harshit Rana towards Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Mayank Agarwal last night. Rana, who proved to be the hero for Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in their IPL 2024 opener, gave a flying kiss to Agarwal after claiming his wicket in the 6th over.

That particular gesture lit up the entire crowd in the stadium as KKR fans loved every bit of it but the IPL authorities as well as Sunil Gavaskar did not like it at all. While the league officials charged Harshit Rana 60% of his match fees, Gavaskar stated that the youngster had no obligation to do so and that it was unnecessary. But the right-arm pacer will be happy regardless as he was the one who dragged Kolkata towards the win with his final 6 deliveries.

“Rana committed two Level 1 offences under Article 2.5 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct. He was fined 10 per cent and 50 per cent of his match fees for the two respective offences. Rana admitted to the two offences and accepted the Match Referee’s sanction.” – IPL’s media advisory read. 

Gavaskar asks Harshit Rana to keep his emotions in check and celebrate with his teammates

Sunil Gavaskar, who is on commentary duty as always for the ongoing IPL edition, first said that Harshit Rana should not have pulled out that gesture – the flying kiss which had a lot of anger. Anger because Mayank Agarwal, before getting caught at deep square leg by Rinku Singh off a bouncer, was smacking KKR bowlers all over the park. Whether it was Starc, Varun Chakravarthy or Rana, Agarwal had initiated a good response with Abhishek Sharma in their chase of 209.

Harshit Rana’s flying kiss was not much appreciated by Mayank Agarwal, who too, gave a look but walked away quietly. Sunil Gavaskar then defended Agarwal by saying that he wasn’t throwing any negative gesture despite hitting balls out of the park and that Cricket can be played without these gestures.

Gavaskar then asked Rana to keep control of his emotions in this digital era and if he wants to celebrate then his teammates are always there for it.

“He should not have done that. Did the batsman do anything to him when he was hitting him for sixes? Cricket can be played without these antics. It’s the age of television. I understand that. Celebrate with your teammates but no need for such antics for the opposition.” – Gavaskar said after the match in Eden Gardens. 

Watch Rana’s flying kiss to Agarwal

A flying kiss by Harshit Rana to Mayank Agarwal as a send off.pic.twitter.com/LVkQYKmisZ

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 23, 2024

The send-off to Agarwal might not have been that great but Harshit Rana’s 20th over of the 2nd innings was. He took the onus to defend 13 off the last 6 in front of a dangerously set Heinrich Klaasen and Shahbaz Ahmed who was batting a 300+ strike rate.

After conceding 6 off the first ball off by Klaasen, Rana scalped Ahmed in the 3rd ball and then Klaasen in the 5th ball – both caught in long-on and short third man respectively.