On a day when the cricketing world united to celebrate the retiring AB de Villiers, former India quick Parvinder Awana paid a bizarre tribute on social media, posting a video of him clean bowling the South African legend during an IPL game eight years ago.

Awana took to Twitter to upload the 10-second clip, in which he dismissed AB de Villiers during a game between Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) and Royal Challengers Bangalore that was held at Bengaluru in 2013. Batting first, RCB were well placed at 159-2 with nine balls left when de Villiers walked out to bat. The wicketkeepe-batter smashed the first ball that he faced off the bowling of Awana for a six but the bowler had the last laugh as he clean bowled him in the very next delivery.

The video uploaded by Awana had the caption, “Thank you @ABdeVilliers17 for your contribution to cricket.”

Thank you @ABdeVilliers17 for your contribution to cricket. pic.twitter.com/orFEXsFjnB

— Parvinder Awana (@ParvinderAwana) November 19, 2021

The bizarre tribute was criticised heavily on the social media platform. Awana picked up 30 IPL wickets in 33 games and also played two T20Is for the country.

His heart is in the right place.

And since most hearts are actually on the left side, being in the right is actually wrong. https://t.co/9a2QjggKGJ

— Vageesh (@R_Dravia) November 19, 2021

This day continues to get better https://t.co/F6mPnlHTzm

— Alagappan Vijayakumar (@IndianMourinho) November 19, 2021

Unreal 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/aJAYa63Yws

— The Divine Beard (@Gerrardicted) November 19, 2021