Yuvraj the peacemaker in Robin-Kaul tiff
HYDERABAD:Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on the brilliance of captain David Warner’s scintillating ton as they thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by 48 runs at the Uppal Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.
However, while his century was a brilliant endorsement for the gentleman’s game, there was a bit of an ungentlemanly conduct as well during the second innings that although didn’t mar the spirit of cricket but left a bad taste. It was in the third over during Kolkata Knight Riders’s chase, who were already struck with an early double whammy of losing captain Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine within the first 15 balls.
Gambhir did start well, with a couple of boundaries in the first over, but fell to Siddharth Kaul while trying to hit him for a big one. It went high up in their air before Rashid Khan comfortably held on to it while the batsmen crossed over.
Uthappa was joined by Manish Pandey and after two more dots that followed, Uthappa sent one between mid-on and mid-wicket region to bring up his first boundary. However, as he reached the non-striking end, Uthappa seemed to give a gentle push to Kaul who could only raise his hands in disbelief. The wicketkeeper-batsman was also be seen saying a few words to Kaul, to which the latter didn’t reply.
Yuvraj Singh, who was on the field at the time of the incident, could be seen vividly shaking his head in disbelief to the unsporting gesture while trudging back to his fielding position.
However, when rain halted play, he could also be seen walking up to Uthappa, having an arm around him and trying to play the peacemaker’s role while trying to remind the batsman how a senior like him should be treating a youngster like Kaul.