There were ugly scenes at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, as rival captains Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary almost exchanged blows during the Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Bengal, here today.
The situation came to such a pass that umpire K. Srinath had to intervene as Gambhir moved towards Tiwary menacingly. Gambhir also pushed the umpire, who was trying to prevent him from hitting Tiwary.
Touching the umpire is a grave offence in cricket, which could invite a ban.
The incident happened in the eighth over when Partha Sarathi Bhattacharjee got out to Manan Sharma and Tiwary came in to bat at No. 4 wearing a cap.
Tiwary took guard and was about to take strike, but he stopped the bowler and signalled to the dressing room to bring his helmet as a fast bowler was operating from the other end.
Delhi players felt that it was a deliberate time-wasting tactic. Manan ticked off Manoj, and the latter told Manan to lay off. All of a sudden, Gambhir, who was at first slip, got into the action and started abusing the Bengal skipper, who retaliated.
Suddenly all hell broke loose as Gambhir said: “Shaam ko mil tujhe maroonga (Meet me in the evening, I will hit you).” And Tiwary retorted,“Shaam kya abhi bahar chal (Why wait till evening, let's go out and settle it now”).”
Umpire Srinath then sprinted towards the players even as Gambhir, with his fists raised, charged towards Tiwary, who was also not ready to back down. Srinath came in the middle and Gambhir, to everyone's horror, pushed the umpire.
Manoj was then seen shouting at Gambhir, saying: “Did I tell you anything? Why did you have to come in between.”
Both Tiwary and Gambhir will be summoned by the match referee Valmick Buch.
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