Rajasthan Royals (RR) won their latest encounter of the IPL 2022 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 15 at the Brabourne Stadium and moved one step closer to confirming their spot in the playoffs.
During the last stages of the match, Riyan Parag was left fuming as one of his brilliant catches was ruled not out by the third umpire. The incident happened in the 19th over in which he had claimed Stoinis' catch but the third umpire had deemed that the ball touched the ground and deemed it not out.
Third umpire Bruce Oxenford wasn’t convinced that the ball was caught safely by Parag and ruled Stoinis not out. This left Parag distraught and was seen mouthing something to on-filed umpires.
A little while later, Stoinis once again hit the ball in the air, this time Parag taking a much simpler catch. In an act of arrogance, Parag then grabbed the ball and slowly took it down before taking it up just before it touched the ground. This was likely a dig at the third umpire who had ruled his previous catch null.
"I have got some advice for you young man, cricket is very very long game and we all have very long memories. Never ever tempt fate because it comes around quickly," said Matthew Hayden on commentary.
“Future will determine that,” said former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop, who was in the box with Hayden, when replays showed Parag's gesture.
Here is the video of Riyan Parag’s dig at the third umpire:
His action might have been a folly of his youth, but the Twitterverse were not impressed with his actions and reacted to his gesture on the social media site.
Here are a few tweets:
