There were ugly scenes at Feroz Shah Kotla ground as rival captains Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary nearly came to exchanging blows during the Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Bengal, here on Saturday.
Situation came to such a pass that umpire K Srinath had to come between the two players as Gambhir moved towards Tiwary to hit him and he also came charging at him.
In fact in an unprecedented ugly gesture, Gambhir even pushed umpire Srinath, who was trying to get him out of the way to hit Tiwary. The incident happened in 7.1 over when Partha Sarathi Bhattacharjee got out of Manan Sharma's bowling and Tiwary came in to bat at No. 4 wearing a cap.
Tiwary first took guard and was about to take strike. But he stopped the bowler and signalled at the dressing room to bring his helmet as a pacer was operating from the other end.
Delhi players felt that it was a deliberate time wasting tactic. Manan ticked off Manoj and he told him to lay off. All of a sudden, Gambhir, at first slip, got into the action and started abusing the Bengal skipper, who then 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, saying: "Shaam kya abhi bahar chal (Why wait till evening, let's go out and settle it now").
Gambhir with his fists raised charged towards Tiwary, who was also not ready to back down. Umpire Srinath came in the middle, but Gambhir to everyone's horror pushed the umpire. Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya said: "It happens when two captains are passionate about game. The match referee will decide based on umpire's report. This is not first time it has happened and neither is it the last time."
Bengal take handy lead
A collective performance by Bengal bowlers led by Pragyan Ojha (4/77) ensured an 108-run first innings lead over Delhi in an ill-tempered third day of Ranji Trophy Group A encounter.
Having scored 357 in their first innings, Bengal bowled out Delhi for 249. However, the visitors lost three wickets in their second innings to finish the penultimate day at a precarious 47 for three, taking lead to 155.