Kolkata Knight Riders bowler Harshit Rana drew a lot of flak from fans on social media and from experts on the mic for his flying-kiss send-off to Mayank Agarwal during the team’s IPL 2024 opener last week at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata against Sunrises Hyderabad. Harshit was later severely punished by BCCI as well for the act. Days after the gesture, as Kolkata kicked off their second match in the tournament, Rana was seen having a chat with Royal Challengers Bengaluru star Virat Kohli during the tie at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
It happened in the second over of the match when Kohli pushed for a single after fending the delivery from Rana towards the off side. During the run, the former RCB skipper was seen having a word with the bowler, who was all smiles, before Kohli patted on his back.
Two deliveries later, RCB captain Faf du Plessis smashed the length delivery from the right-arm fast bowler for a boundary with a premeditated scoop. Rana, however, had the last laugh as he dismissed Du Plessis in the very next ball, with a slower one. The RCB opener looked to scoop it to the fine-leg fence, but ended up holing it out to the fielder at short fine.
Earlier last week, in the match against SRH, Rana, in the flow of the moment gave flying-kiss send-off to Mayank after dismissing him, which left former India captain Sunil Gavaskar fuming on air. Later, the fast bowler was slapped with a heavy fine for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct in two offences.
“Rana committed two Level 1 offences under Article 2.5 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct. He was fined 10 percent and 50 percent of his match fees for the two respective offences,” an IPL release stated. “Rana admitted to the two offences and accepted the Match Referee’s sanction. For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding.”
Earlier in the match, KKR won the toss and opted to bowl first. The visitors handed Ankul Roy is first opportunity this season, while RCB remained unchanged.
“Had a brief chat with the curator, she was intellectual in terms of how the wicket was going to play. Had a brief interaction with her and she was like the ball will also spin,” KKR captain Shreyas Iyer explained the rationale behind bowling first.
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