West Indies players Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard are known to be theatrical characters, but one incident between them during Saturday’s IPL match raised a lot of eyebrows. Australian cricketer Shane Watson tweeted his surprise at what he saw, questioning whether the two players were indeed mates. The match between Gujarat Lions and Mumbai Indians was the last league match for the two teams, with a place in the playoffs at stake, and passions were understandably running high.
The two players have engaged in several similar ‘clashes’ before – how real these face-offs are is something only the two of them shall be able to answer. They provide a constant talking point with their antics, however.
In the 14th over of the MI innings on Saturday, Pollard came out to bat, to face the last ball of Dwayne Bravo’s over. However, just as Bravo was approaching to bowl, the batsman put his hand up to ask him to wait. He then proceeded to walk a little down the pitch and give it a sheepish look before heading back to his crease. Bravo had a smile on his face, but like any bowler asked to stop in the middle of his run-up, he would not have been very pleased.
Pollard probably needed a little more time to get ready, but did not fare much better when the delivery was actually bowled either. Bravo pumped it in short, and he had no option but to block it. The ball was picked up by Bravo in his follow through, who then approached the batsman and pushed himself up very close to Pollard.
Pollard, hardly taken aback, postured his bat as if to say that he would hit Bravo if required, and held the position for a while – probably for TV cameras to zoom in on the moment and for the stadium crowd to notice that something was wrong. This is a trick Caribbean players have been up to before, MS Dhoni had once been taken aback by one of Bravo’s shenanigans.
Shane Watson was one of those who were shocked at seeing the altercation between the two, but there were many who have opted to believe that this is only one of Bravo’s tricks to entertain the crowd. Some have linked the incident to a recent incident when Bravo was one of the players to question Pollard’s inclusion in the West Indies ODI side.
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