JOIN USTill the fourth ball of the 17th over, the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians meandered along the sporting lines. But a sudden explosion in tempers of Mitchell Starc, the strapping RCB pacer, and Kieron Pollard, the burly Mumbai all-rounder, gave the proceedings a sharp edge.
After bowling a bouncer to Pollard, Starc mouthed a few words and the West Indian shooed him off like an irritant fly. That reaction of Pollard might have further angered the Australian left-arm quick. The sight then, of the Trinidadian moving in the last second to leg side, didn’t stop Starc from delivering the ball, and he fired the ball in the direction where Pollard had backed away.
Pollard got hot under the collar, and flung his bat, fortunately to the ground, in anger, before advancing to Starc with pointed fingers. Umpires K Srinath and S Ravi intervened on time to prevent further flaring up of tempers, and Royal Challengers skipper Virat Kohli and Pollard’s compatriot Chris Gayle too joined in their effort to calm down the situation. Pollard and Starc went their own ways but in obvious rage.
The personal battle didn’t end there as it spilled over to the last over of the Mumbai innings, albeit in a much scaled down manner. It was once again Starc’s turn to bowl at Pollard. Off the fourth ball of the over, Pollard walked across the stumps for a paddle, but he missed the ball. By then non-striker Rohit Sharma had already charged down the crease and Pollard gave away his wicket for his skipper, slowly walking out of the crease.
Stumper Parthiv Patel under-armed the ball back to Starc, who gesticulated to Pollard to come to his end before aggressively whipping the bails off to dismiss him. Pollard walked off with a backward glance, ending the unsavoury exchange.