Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player Harshit Rana celebrated dismissing Delhi Capitals’ (DC) batter Abishek Porel in the ongoing 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) game at Eden Gardens on Monday.
After a lackluster performance in the powerplay against the Mumbai Indians (MI), Porel shown a lot of determination despite DC being in a difficult situation, losing three early wickets. The left-handed hitter scored 17 runs off 10 deliveries, including three consecutive boundaries in Rana’s opening over.
The pacer bowled his second over immediately after the powerplay, tricking Porel with a cutter. The hitter attempted a scoop after stepping away from the stumps. However, Abishek Porel missed the ball completely, knocking down his stump.
Harshit Rana motioned for Porel to return to the dressing room after creating a mess of the stumps. He considered giving a flying kiss to celebrate the wicket, but decided against it. It is worth remembering that his flying kiss celebration resulted in a suspension in the opening game of the season.
Take a peek at the dismissal and celebration here:
Porel scored 18 runs off 15 deliveries, including two fours and a six, before being dismissed.
Rana, on the other hand, is having a somewhat mixed day on the field. His first over yielded 16 runs, but he replied quickly with a wicket and another wicket. He then lost a sitter off Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling, giving Rishabh Pant a second opportunity.
Harshit Rana has already copped a fine in IPL 2024 because of his celebration
This was not the first time the fast bowler showed such excited celebrations after taking a wicket. Harshit Rana did similar big celebrations in KKR’s first game win over the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Eden Gardens.
Rana had gotten into Mayank Agarwal’s face and swept him away to the pavilion with a flying kiss. The bowler also pulled out the walk to the dressing room celebration with his hand-like gesture against Porel after dismissing Heinrich Klaasen in the final over of the tight match.
He was fined 60% of his match money for his theatrics, since both of his celebrations were classified Level 1 infractions under the IPL Code of Conduct.