IPL has been a breeding ground for young domestic cricketers by offering them a platform to express their talents but often, rookies can be overwhelmed by the experience around them. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) pacer, Harshit Rana learned his lesson on Monday after his plea to Nitish Rana to change the field fell on deaf ears.
Punjab Kings enjoyed topsy-turvy innings against KKR at Eden Gardens to eventually post a competitive target of 180 for the hosts. The side kept on losing wickets at regular intervals throughout their 20 overs and at one stage seemed doomed to a sub-par total before the 20th over brought the game back to an even keel.
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The disaster in store for KKR in the 20th over was foreshadowed by a spat between skipper Nitish Rana and young fast bowler Harshit Rana in a rare on-field occurrence. Right-arm pacer was making his way to the bowling mark to begin the over while Nitish Rana instructed fielders around the ground.
When the path of the two intersected, the skipper explained the rookie fast bowler for his field setup. However, the bowler was clearly unconvinced by Nitish’s plans and ventured a suggestion to the veteran. Surprisingly, Nitish chose to pay no heed to the young pacer despite his impressive opening spell of 2-0-12-2 and simply ordered him to prepare for his run-up.
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An insistent Harshit Rana stopped in his tracks and reiterated his perspective, only to be met with the same reaction albeit with greater intensity this time. Evidently dismayed, Harshit continued to look at his skipper with hope, almost as if pleading with him, before continuing on his way with annoyance writ large on his face. The captain might have been in a rush to get the over started so as not to suffer fielding restrictions for slow over-rate.
Here is the video of the incident:
https://twitter.com/WashingtonYdav/status/1655605354770604033?s=20
The Purple Army ended up conceding 21 runs in the over, on the back of two maximums and as many boundaries, making the Twitter go abuzz with reactions to the fiasco.
https://twitter.com/GillSznn/status/1655601553758199809?s=20
Very very poor captaincy from Rana. Trusting Harshit and Vaibhav above Russell and Thakur at the death.
— AKSHAY (@akshay14793) May 8, 2023
Fuck KKR's death bowling!
No Lord, No Russel, but Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana! Seriously?! #KKRvPBKS #TATAIPL2023— Dharmin Doshi (@DharminD) May 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/prags_here/status/1655601505406451712?s=20
https://twitter.com/anshu_aggarwal9/status/1655601008591126528?s=20
I can't understand why this gem Harshit Rana has played so late.
Tall fast bowler with accurate length and line..
He can easily play for ICT T20#KKRvPBKS #rana
Pc : Tataipl pic.twitter.com/oqLKnt5PLj
— Rajat Sehgal (@RajatSehgal94) May 8, 2023
Harshit Rana showing his class 🔥 #KKRvsPBKS
— Shrikant ef (@shrikantd31) May 8, 2023
Bowling Arora n Harshit in 19th n 20th I say again n again Rana is not a great captain at all🤦🏻♂️
— Satya (@TrumpMawa) May 8, 2023
When will Nitish understand Vaibhav isn't a death bowler plus harshit rana
Dint complete 4 overs🤦♂️— Sledgie (@Sledgie5) May 8, 2023
https://twitter.com/ritik_____raj/status/1655600693657628672?s=20
