5 Instances when cricketers celebrated prematurely
Sports is something which some people play with all the passion they have in their heart. Playing with all the passion can actually help players to get better results. Sometimes, when you work hard and finally reach a goal, your passion will turn that happiness into a celebration.
However, it is nothing wrong with celebrating after achieving a goal, but a premature celebration can also come back and hurt you later on. In cricket, there have many moments were a premature celebration from a player have hurt them only.
Without further to do, let’s see 5 Instances when cricketers celebrated prematurely:
1. Suresh Raina
This incident took place way back in IPL 2009. In a league match, Rajasthan Royals were taking on Chennai Super Kings at the Supersport Park in Centurion. Batting first CSK had struggled to get a great start but Suresh Raina held the innings together. On a pitch where everyone was finding difficult to bat, Raina was in some really good form.
Having accelerated at the right time, Raina found himself batting on 94 in the last over. He smashed one ball for a four and reached 98. However, he started celebrating as if he had got his century already. He hit the next ball straight up in the air and got out for 98. After reaching the dressing room, he realised that he had actually scored 98 and not a hundred.
The problem was that the scoreboard at Supersport Park showed Raina’s score was 100, when in fact he had only scored 98 runs. Because of this, he had started celebrating. Had he got the hundred, he would have become the first Indian to score an IPL century. A few days later, Manish Pandey went on to achieve the feat. Raina got his first and only IPL century in the 2013 season.
2. Mushfiqur Rahim
This incident was from a match which every Bangladesh fan would want to forget. During the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2016, India was up against Bangladesh in Bengaluru. Having failed to get a big score, India were struggling to cope up with Bangladesh’s batting efforts. A loss would have knocked them out of the tournament.
Well, it all went down to the wire. Bangladesh needed 10 runs off five balls. Hardik Pandya was bowling and Mushfiqur Rahim smashed him for two back to back boundaries. This left the equation down to two runs from three balls. When Rahim hit the second boundary, knowing only two runs were left, he started celebrating in the middle of the pitch.
The next ball, he got out. Mahmudullah Riyad got out off the next ball and a runout followed in the next ball. India had snatched an unlikely win from the jaws of defeat. Rahim’s celebration looked quite silly and is something which even he would want to forget.
3. Asela Gunaratne
A victory against South Africa in the rainbow nation is something to cherish, but Asela Gunaratne will have some definitive memories of his moment. This incident took place in 2017 when Sri Lanka was playing South Africa in the series decider in Cape Town. The visitors needed five runs to win from three balls when Gunaratne smashed the ball for a four.
Sri Lanka still needed one run to win but the batsman didn’t realise this. Gunaratne thought the run chase was done and started celebrating. He, in fact, took off one of the stumps and celebrated in a classic fashion.
However, his batting partner Seekkuge Prasanna then reminded him that they still needed a run to seal the deal. Gunaratne came back and scored one run off the next ball. After this, the entire Sri Lankan team ran to the pitch and celebrated with the batsman.
4. Herschelle Gibbs
Even after 21 years of this incident, there are only a handful of cricket fans who may not remember this. This incident took place during a super six match at the ICC Cricket World Cup 1999. Even though it was only a drop catch, in the context of the tournament, this moment had a lot of significance.
Australia was playing against South Africa and fighting for a semi-final spot. The proteas put a huge score on the board and the Aussies were struggling. Australian captain Steve Waugh was trying his best to keep his team alive in the competition when he by mistake chipped one ball in the air.
Herschelle Gibbs grabbed the catch quite comfortably, but in an attempt to throw it in the air and celebrate, the ball slipped from his hand. The umpire ruled it in the favour of the batsman as Gibbs didn’t have the ball long enough to call it a catch.
Waugh went on to score a magnificent century and seal a spot for his side in the semi-finals. What more, the semi-final clash between South Africa and Australia got tied. As the Aussies had beaten the Proteas in the previous round, they got an opportunity to enter the final. The dropped catch by Herschelle Gibbs hence became an infamous memory for the Proteas cricket.
5. Ravichandran Ashwin
This incident took place in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy 2019 final. Tamil Nadu was up against a strong Karnataka side. The match went down to the wire. Tamil Nadu needed 13 runs to win off the last over. Ravichandran Ashwin was batting with Vijay Shankar. Krishnappa Gowtham was bowling the final over and Ashwin had smashed him for two back to back fours on the first two balls.
As Tamil Nadu needed only five runs to win from four balls, Ashwin felt that he had enough to seal the match for his side. Unfortunately, Gowtham held his nerve and defended the score.
Tamil Nadu fell short by one run and Karnataka was crowned as champions. The incident became quite popular on social media and many fans compared Ashwin’s prematurely celebration with that of Mushfiqur Rahim’s one.
source https://www.crictracker.com/5-instances-when-cricketers-celebrated-prematurely/
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