Watch: Harshit Rana gives fiery send-off to Mayank Agarwal with flying kiss and death stare

The 22-year-old Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) pacer Harshit Rana was at his aggressive best in the 3rd match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) against the Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 23.

Harshit Rana has improved his game a lot since the last season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and he was good with his lines and lengths in the opening match of his team in the ongoing edition of the league.

After troubling the SRH openers Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma with the new ball, he finally managed to bag a wicket in the 6th over of the innings. On the third ball, he got rid of the senior SRH opener Mayank Agarwal.

Harshit Rana bowled a 128.1kph bouncer to Mayank Agarwal, who went for a pull shot. The SRH opener wasn’t in control when he played his shot and was caught at deep backward square leg by Rinku Singh.

What caught the attention of fans was the things that happened after the dismissal. The KKR bowler was pumped up and he decided to give a heated send-off to the SRH batter. Harshit Rana first gave a flying kiss to Agarwal and then a death stare as he walked towards his teammates to celebrate the crucial wicket.

Mayank Agarwal was back in the dugout after contributing 32 runs off 21 balls with the bat. He also hit 4 fours and 1 six during his innings.

Watch: Harshit Rana gives fiery send-off to Mayank Agarwal

Sealed with a kiss 🫣

Watch #KKRvSRH with #IPLonJioCinema now in Bengali 🤩#TATAIPL #IPL2024 #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/w2mf87HVa0

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) March 23, 2024

Many enjoyed the send-off given by the youngster from KKR, but the legendary India National Cricket Team batsman Sunil Gavaskar wasn’t one of them. Speaking on air, the batting great launched an attack on the pacer and said that his act could have been avoided.

“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.”

Meanwhile, the Kolkata Knight Riders posted a massive total of 208/7 on the board after being invited to bat first. Andre Russell smashed 64 runs off 25 balls while Phil Salt scored 54 runs off 40 balls. Also, Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh scored 23 and 35 runs respectively.

Speaking during the mid-innings break, Phil Salt expressed happiness over the performance of his team in the innings. He elaborated:

“Funny how this game works, really happy to be with such an amazing franchise and hope we get our first points tonight. It was slightly sticky with the new ball, and when the ball becomes old it becomes slightly easier. Back (of a length) and top of the stumps are quite tricky, and hope our seamers can do something similar. I am just happy that I am going there and delivering for the team under pressure with such a huge crowd here.”