During the fourth T20I between India and Australia, the on-field umpire KN Ananthapadmanabhan took a blow on his hands while trying to avoid the ball after it was struck by Jitesh Sharma. The moment happened after Chris Green delivered a full-toss ball, which came straight towards him in the follow through but he couldn’t catch it.
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The 15th over of the Indian innings, bowled by Chris Green, saw Jitesh Sharma hit a couple of maximums, but in between, he nearly caused an incident on the field. The 30-year-old tried to smash a low full-toss from the off-spinner into the grandstands but only managed to find the umpire in his way, who was standing behind the stumps at the non-striker’s end.
Watch the video of on-field umpire taking body blow here:
For the unversed, the Australian captain Matthew Wade won the toss and decided to field first at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur in the fourth T20I after being down 1-2 in the five-match series. His decision didn’t prove to be the best for the visitors, who conceded 50 runs in the powerplay, but they managed to pick up the key wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal (37 off 28) on the last ball of the sixth over.
After losing the quick wickets of the returning Shreyas Iyer and the captain Suryakumar Yadav, India were staring down the barrel but for Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rinku Singh to steady the innings. Although the centurion of the previous T20I went for 32 off 28, he put the Indian cricket team in a decent position at 111-4 in the 14th over.
