From Matthew Wade’s sensational hat-trick of sixes to Mohammad Rizwan‘s scintillating batting performance, there were a lot of eye-catching moments in the recently concluded semi-final clash between Australia and Pakistan in Dubai on Thursday.
However, there was another rare incident that captured maximum eyeballs involving Aussie opening batter David Warner. The episode took place on the very first ball of the eighth over of Australian chase bowled by Pakistan part-timer Mohammad Hafeez.
While bowling the delivery, Hafeez lost control of his grip as the white leather slipped out awkwardly from his hand, bounced near his foot and then bounced again for the second time. More often than not, batters tend to leave these sorts of deliveries, but Warner had some other plans.
The pocket dynamite capitalised on the sloppy ball and dispatched it over the deep mid-wicket for a huge six. Umpire Richard Kettleborough then signalled the delivery as no-ball because it had bounced twice.
https://twitter.com/QuickWristSpin/status/1458837244014313473
Reacting to the incident, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir didn’t look impressed with Warner’s act as he termed it against the ‘spirit of the game’. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Gambhir wrote: “What an absolutely pathetic display of spirit of the game by Warner! #Shameful What say @ashwinravi99?”
What an absolutely pathetic display of spirit of the game by Warner! #Shameful What say @ashwinravi99? pic.twitter.com/wVrssqOENW
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) November 11, 2021
Even in the post-match show on Star Sports, Gambhir lambasted the likes of Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting. The cricketer-turned-politician said Warne and Ponting bring ‘spit of game’ according to their convenience. Gambhir asserted these players were quick to criticise Ravichandran Ashwin for ‘Mankad’, but they will not utter a single word if their own player does such stuff.
“I would like to see what Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting have to say about this because they had a big discussion on Ashwin’s ‘Mankading’, questioned the spirit of the game. It doesn’t suit such a big player like Warner to do that,” said Gambhir.
