Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav have been on the bench, carrying drinks for both of the two T20Is against Sri Lanka so far. However, both were involved in a hilarious incident during the second T20I on Saturday in Dharamsala.
This incident is of the 10th over of Sri Lanka’s innings after Yuzvendra Chahal, the leg-spinner, had dismissed left-hander Charith Asalanka. Chahal delivered a flatter leg-break on length in line with the stumps. Asalanka, a newcomer at the crease, went for the sweep shot to a ball that went straight.
Asalanka failed to connect with his sweep while he was down on his knee as the ball hit him on his front pad. The umpire, in this case, Jayaraman Madanagopal, was quick to raise his finger as Chahal had his first wicket of the night.
Asalanka, though, referred to this decision by taking a review. To no one’s surprise, he was plumb out as the ball was projected on Hawkeye to be crashing the middle of the middle stump.
Now here comes the funny part involving Siraj and Kuldeep that has got the fans in splits. As the umpire, Madanagopal, was about to raise his finger again on the direction of third umpire Anil Chaudhary, first Siraj and then Kuldeep, both running in with drinks, went behind the umpire to signal the out decision.
Gets even funnier: while Mohammed Siraj did stop for a fraction of a second behind the umpire to raise his finger, Kuldeep Yadav just kept going on with his hand raised. Kuldeep, sporting a cute smile, had a small jump behind the umpire while also brushing Madanagopal on the side and hitting the umpire’s arm!!
The umpire then was apparently apologising to Kuldeep after the leggie brushed his hand.
You can watch this rib-tickling incident here:
@mdsirajofficial @imkuldeep18 pic.twitter.com/zfvrNY54dl
— the Nervy (@Ashutos79253842) February 26, 2022
Fans have been left in cracking up over this amusing act from Siraj and Kuldeep.
Babuji aka Alok nath ji to umpire
pic.twitter.com/KYR2EmXyAL
— Aditi ? (@Sev_Khamani) February 26, 2022
Bechara khud kuldeep ko sorry bola ?
— SANKET (@ping_sanket22) February 26, 2022
siraj na ?
— ? (@ondikatta_) February 26, 2022
Kuldeep kuthikan???? https://t.co/F5qL480XNi
— Akash (@rohitvijay1506) February 26, 2022
Kuldeep yadav is literally me ?? https://t.co/dP5YDpCwf1
— ? ♡ (@ps100rp17) February 26, 2022
?????? https://t.co/et6UfYHV1v
— Anurag? (@freak_anurag) February 26, 2022
The most hilarious part is umpire apologizing to Kuldeep.? https://t.co/XHGk7hcd5l
— ADIL ICT¹⁹⁹⁹ (@AdilMuzaffar3) February 26, 2022
This reminded cricket followers of former India cricketer Suresh Raina, who also used to do such out signal behind the umpire.
Talking about Sri Lanka, the visitors have posted a big total of 183 runs on the back of two brilliant innings: opener Pathum Nissanka anchored the innings after struggling early on, ending up with 75 off 53 balls, before skipper Dasun Shanaka provided his side with a late hitting, remaining unbeaten on 47 off just 19 balls.
For India, Harshal Patel was the most expensive bowler, leaking 52 runs. All five Indian bowlers picked one wicket each.
