Nitish Rana and Ayush Badoni had a heated exchange in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy today (December 11), with the umpires having to separate the two players on the field.
The incident took place in the first innings of the quarter-final match between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Badoni was relatively new to the crease, coming in after openers Priyansh Arya and Yash Dhull had put on an 81-run first wicket partnership. That partnership had been broken by Rana when he dismissed Arya for 44 off 31 balls.
The first tell of conflict between the pair was when Rana pulled out of his run-up in the 13th over of the innings shortly before he would have bowled the delivery. Badoni retaliated by withdrawing from his batting stance as Rana ran in to bowl the following delivery. After Rana sent the next delivery down to Badoni which he hit into the leg side for a single, Rana moved across at the bowler's end so that Badoni was running directly into his path.
Badoni had to slow down to avoid Rana and the two engaged in a stare-off after the ball was dead. Having exchanged words, in between deliveries the two players advanced towards each other, with their faces inches apart. They had to be separated by the on-field umpire to de-escalate the confrontation.
Badoni was dismissed by Vineet Panwar in the 18th over of the innings for an 18-ball 25. Delhi set Uttar Pradesh 194 runs to win, and quickly reduced them to 45-3 in the chase.
Watch: Badoni and Rana's heated exchange
— Sunil Gavaskar (@gavaskar_theman) December 11, 2024
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