Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has berated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) spinner Digvesh Rathi for his celebration against Punjab Kings (PBKS) opener Priyansh Arya in the 13th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Chasing 172 runs, Punjab lost Arya in the third over of the match. The opener was looking to play a pull shot to accumulate some runs but got caught at the hands of Shardul Thakur, who was deployed at the mid-on. After bagging the wicket, Rathi walked towards disappointed Arya and riled the opener with a notebook send-off. Taking note of the incident, on-field umpires issued a warning to Rathi. After the game, the 25-year-old was also imposed with a penalty of 25% match fees and a demerit point for the celebration.
The LSG spinner’s act also caught Gavaskar’s attention as the legend was in the commentary box. He remarked, "I can understand the celebration if the wicket comes after the batsman hit a boundary or a six in the previous ball. As a bowler, you've got six deliveries. So if you got five dot balls and get a wicket of the sixth, then you do something like that, it's not understandable. But all these gestures mean that you don't expect to get a wicket. And now that you've got a wicket, you're trying to, you know, show off."
Gavaskar feels Shreyas Iyer didn’t get enough credit for KKR’s success in IPL 2024
PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer looked dominating with his bat against Lucknow and guided his team to an eight-wicket win. The right-handed batter led his side from the front and hit an unbeaten 52 off 30. Currently, he is the second-leading run-getter in the competition, racking up 149 runs in two matches at a breathtaking strike rate of 206.94.
During the contest in Lucknow, Gavaskar also praised Iyer’s effort in Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) title success in 2024. The former opener also added the 30-year-old didn’t get enough credit from the KKR management for guiding the team to their third trophy win as a captain.
