Mumbai Indians' (MI) Krunal Pandya showcased perfect example of spirit of cricket by withdrawing his run out appeal in the match against Punjab Kings’ (PBKS) skipper KL Rahul. The incident took place on the final delivery of the powerplay overs. The left-arm spinner was bowling to Chris Gayle from round the wicket. Gayle hit the ball on the bounce straight to Rahul at the non-striker end. The ball deflected off Rahul’s body and Pandya was quick to flick it back to stumps. However, he withdrew his appeal as the on-field umpire was referring it to the third umpire.
Rahul may have made it back to the crease but the batter had no time to recover from his teammate’s hit. The PBKS skipper gave Pandya a thumbs up for his gesture.
Both PBKS batters were dismissed in the next over by Kieron Pollard. Earlier in the innings, Pandya got the wicket of opener Mandeep Singh in the powerplay overs. He bowled economically as well giving 24 runs from his quota of four overs.
This gesture comes after heated exchange between Delhi Capitals’ (DC) R Ashwin and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Eoin Morgan along with Tim Southee in the afternoon game. Dinesh Karthik intervened and asked Ashwin to ignore and go back to the dressing room. However, Ashwin got the wicket of Morgan in the second innings and gave him an aggressive send-off.
