Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) new recruit, Digvesh Rathi, added some spice to the IPL 2025 as he gave Punjab Kings (PBKS) batter Priyansh Arya a fiery send-off.
Featuring in his maiden IPL season, the mystery spinner dismissed Arya and then celebrated with the iconic notebook gesture at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
The incident unfolded in the third over of Punjab's innings. Rathi bowled a shorter delivery outside off and Arya went for the pull shot, but lacked the footwork, which resulted in a top edge. Shardul Thakur grabbed the catch comfortably at mid-on to send the PBKS opener back to the pavilion for 8 off 9 balls.
As soon as the catch was taken, Rathi ran up to Arya and pulled off a notebook celebration, akin to that of veteran West Indies bowler Kesrick Williams, who gave a similar send-off to Virat Kohli during a series in 2017.
For his act, Rathi didn’t only face the wrath of on-field umpires but was also schooled by the legendary Sunil Gavaskar on-air.
After PBKS defeated LSG by eight wickets, the Mohali-based franchise and Punjab fans trolled Digvesh Rathi brutally.
In an Instagram post, PBKS shared a picture of Rathi giving send-off to Arya and added another photo of a notebook with “Punjab Kings won by 8 wickets” written on it. The caption of the post read, “Writing off another win!”
A video also went viral on the internet, in which a group of Punjab fans can be seen mocking Rathi’s notebook celebration with “Aapka challan kaat dia hai” gesture.
“Priyansh bhai badla Poora hua..!,” the caption of viral video read.
Coming to the match, PBKS chased down LSG’s target of 172 with 22 deliveries to spare. After Arya’s dismissal, skipper Shreyas Iyer and Prabhsimran Singh added 84 runs for the second wicket.
While Prabhsimran got out after scoring 69 off 34 balls, Shreyas held the one end firmly and remained unbeaten on 52* off 30 balls to take PBKS over the line alongside Nehal Wadhera (43* off 25).
