Serial pitch invader “Jarvo 69” interrupted India’s opening World Cup game against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai today (October 8).

India’s first World Cup game got off to an eventful start with prankster Daniel Jarvis, better known as “Jarvo 69”, invading the MA Chidambaram Stadium playing area just as the game was about to begin.

Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. The Indian team and the umpires were out on the field when “Jarvo 69” somehow breached the fencing around the stands and invaded onto the field, getting close to Virat Kohli, who along with the officials, had to escort him out of the ground.

This is not the first time that “Jarvo 69” has breached security protocols and invaded the playing area in cricket matches involving India. The first time he made an appearance in an India game was back in 2021 during India’s second Test match against England at Lord’s.

Since then, he has managed to do the same on several more occasions, leading up to him being found guilty of aggravated trespass in September 2022. However, this was the first occasion of him intruding into an Indian venue.

“Jarvo 69” has a YouTube channel with more than 180,000 subscribers where his antics of running onto cricket ground can be found in a video.

This incident will raise concerns over security, particularly since it happened at one of the biggest stages in cricket. Fortunately, though, there wasn’t a lengthy delay and the match started on time with Jasprit Bumrah bowling the first over of the innings.

Bumrah got the first wicket of the game when he got Mitchell Marsh to edge behind to Kohli at first slip for a duck. David Warner then stitched a 69-run second-wicket partnership with Steve Smith before he was dismissed for 41, caught and bowled by Kuldeep Yadav.

By the end of 25 overs, Australia’s score read 102-2.

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