Karun Nair returned to the IPL playing for the Delhi Capitals and continued his purple patch from domestic cricket as it seemed like he never left IPL cricket. Nair had a little argy-bargy with Jasprit Bumrah, whom he took on a ride along the way, scoring a 40-ball 89 on Sunday.
As they say, if you have form, don’t waste it and Karun Nair did something similar after raking in runs left, right and centre in domestic cricket across formats, the veteran Karnataka and now Vidarbha batter didn’t take much time to get warmed himself in the IPL as he smacked a gorgeous 40-ball 89 on his return to the cash-rich league for the Delhi Capitals. Nair was playing an IPL match after three years and smashed a fifty after eight years in the competition as he single-handedly kept the Capitals alive in the 206-run chase at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday against the Mumbai Indians but to no avail as the hosts fell short by 12 runs.
One of the features of Nair’s knock was his strokeplay against both spin and pace as he hit all the bowlers with aplomb, especially Jasprit Bumrah who is not the one to be hit easily. Nair managed to get under Bumrah’s skin, something which very few have been able to do and the two were involved in a verbal spat. Nair brushed Bumrah on his follow-through while taking a second and the batter was quick to put his hand up apologising to the bowler.
However, since Nair had hit Bumrah for a few boundaries, the bowler was frustrated and the little exchange became a full-blown spat between the overs with both players’ teammates and the umpire intervening. Bumrah even threw a couple of words in anger before it all came down. Karun seemingly said “Maine toh kuch kaha bhi nahi” to Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians, stressing that he didn’t even say anything.
But it was Rohit Sharma‘s reaction to this episode that took the cake as he sheepishly mouthed, “tu mil baahar (you meet us after the game)” in jest while enjoying the whole thing as a spectator.
Watch the video here:
Nair went on to smash a 40-ball 89 but a couple of wickets and it all went downhill for the Capitals from then onwards as the hosts lost 9/74 to concede the advantage and eventually suffer their first defeat of the season.