BAT?and ball are used in cricket as instruments of skill, but yesterday in the Indian Premier League (IPL), those two implements came close to being lethal weapons.
Mumbai Indians’ West Indian heavyweight Kieron Pollard and Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB)?Mitchell Starc, almost came to blows at the Wankhede Stadium after both ball and bat were angrily hurled in the wrong directions.
It happened in the 17th over of the Mumbai Indians innings when RCB’s Starc continued with his delivery despite Pollard pulling out of his strike.
As the Australian all-rounder fired the ball at Pollard, the batsman advanced menacingly towards Starc and flung his willow but, luckily, it slipped out of the Trinidadian’s hand and dropped near him.
A fuming Pollard had a word with the umpire complaining about the bowler’s conduct.
In the previous ball, after bowling a bouncer that sailed over Pollard’s head as he tried to hook the ball, Starc mouthed something which the West Indian simply brushed away with a wave of his hand.
After the bat lay on the turf, the two on-field umpires intervened to talk to the two angry players as Chris Gayle, playing for RCB, came over to calm his West Indian teammate.
In a twist of fate, Starc got Pollard out while Pollard took the catch to remove the 24-year-old Aussie.
Starc, who has played 12 Tests, had the satisfaction of running Pollard out when he sacrificed his wicket for captain Rohit Sharma to continue his run blitz.
But before that, he teased the stranded batsman to come back before swatting the bail off.
During the innings break, Starc said there seemed to be something between the Australian players and Pollard but added that throwing the bat was not on.
The saga continued in the second half when Starc was greeted by a bouncer from Pollard, who eventually caught him at cover in the next over.
The Pollard-Starc ugly spat marred Mumbai Indians’ fine win over Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Skipper Sharma and Pollard set ablaze the Wankhede Stadium with some delightful and brave batting as the duo added 97 runs from 9.5 overs for the fifth wicket and powered the Mumbai Indians to a daunting total of 187 for 5 in their allotted 20 overs. Sharma made an unbeaten 59 while Pollard cracked 43.
The Mumbai Indians won by 19 runs with RCB?managing 168 for eight in their innings.
(MK)
