IND vs AUS | Twitter reacts as debutant Green apologizes to umpire for Jitesh's painful strike

12/01/2023

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Amidst 22 prime athletes competing at the very elite level, umpires stick out like sore thumbs as far as physical abilities and agility is concerned. KN Ananthapadmanabhan was made to realize the same on Friday as he became collateral damage in the clash between Chris Green and Jitesh Sharma.

After relatively sedate 30s from openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, India rode on the back of powerful knocks from Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma to propel themselves to a competitive score of 174 in Raipur. The duo inflicted significant damage upon the Australia bowlers with a combined five boundaries and as many maximums and in a rather bizarre incident, umpire KN Ananthapadmanabhan got caught in the crossfire as well.

Jitesh Sharma had greeted debutant Chris Green with a humongous six on the very first ball he faced off the 30-year-old in the 15th over, immediately putting him under pressure. The off-spinner buckled to the occasion and responded with a thigh-high full-toss, causing Jitesh's eyes to light up in excitement. The wicket-keeper batter freed his arm and flat-batted the Kookaburra with all his might straight back past the wicket. Green ventured his hands out as the ball whistled past him but his reaction speed was not good enough to clinch onto the opportunity and the umpire wasn't any better. Ananthapadmanabhan initially flinched attempting to get out of the way but as soon as he realized the futility of his attempt, the official put out his hands hoping to catch the ball instead but to no avail. The white rock struck his palm and popped out while Ananthapadmanabhan backtracked in surprise but luckily enough, he seemed to get away from the incident unscathed.

The umpire sported a huge grin on his face despite the painful blow even as Green walked upto apologize to him with an empathetic pat for having failed to save him from Jitesh's destructive blow. Twitterati was in splits following the incident and took to social media to laud Ananthapadmanabhan's composed handling of the incident.

Brutal

— virat Sharma (@viratSharm69964)

Eventually

The umpire eventually got hit n tried to catch ball to save himself on the boundary shot from Jitesh.. he then apologized to him 😃😃
— Cric_Lover 🏏 (@ankit_bhattar)

Straight up

Jitesh straight hit umpire
— Pushkar Pushp (@ppushp7)

Tweet of the century

Jitesh hit the ball at the umpire 🤣🤣

Punjab MI rivalry at its peak 🔥
— G 🌝 (@MoonEra_G)

Umpire saved

Jitesh always playing well. Umpire saved Chris Green 4 runs
— CricBlood (@cric_madman)

He delivered

Once again, RINKU SINGH delivered when others couldn't do much. 👏👏

Surely gonna be a future megastar 💥🫶

So happy for Jitesh Sharma too. Such a fearless cricketer!! 👏👏
— That BULLISH Guy! 😇✌🏻 (@i_Prathit)

WOW