Shoaib Akhtar was not particularly renowned for a calm demeanour and when Bhajji hit him for a six in a tense run chase during the Asia Cup, Akhtar gave him a piece of his mind, using rather unparliamentary language. Harbhajan got motivated enough to drag his team to victory and angry enough to let out yells directed at Akhtar in a manner that would put Tarzan to shame.
Let’s not even kid. We all remember the argument between Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi in 2006, during an ODI series. While India vs Pakistan matches are always emotionally draining, this confrontation between these 2 names riled fans on either side and made headlines worldwide.
Gambhir was running between stumps to steal a run when Afridi intently got in his way and shoved him. Usually calm and composed Gambhir this time lost it. Some not-so-NSFW words were exchanged when umpires interrupted and chilled the situation.
Check out the video of this infamous incident between Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi-
That 2008 IPL incident is still fresh in memories when Harbhajan Singh allegedly slapped Sreesanth.
While this exact “slap moment” didn’t get captured anywhere, what unfolded soon thereafter was one-of-a-kind thing in cricket. Sreesanth was on the field, crying. Later it was found Bhajji slapped him when MI and KXIP players were shaking hands.
Bhajji was angry because MI lost the match. KXIP lodged a complaint against him. Match referee found him guilty. He was banned from the rest of the tournament and his entire salary of the season was cut. Later, on many occasions, Harbhajan Singh himself admitted that he did slap Sree. He and Sreesanth eventually patched things up.
Here’s a video of Sreesanth crying:
But wait… when talking about one of the most memorable fights on the cricket ground, we cannot NOT talk about the historic match between India and England in the first ever T20 world cup.
It was Durban. Over number 18. Andrew Flintoff, fielding,tried to get under the skin of Yuvraj Singh, which he eventually did. There was a heated exchange between Yuvi and Flintoff. Umpires had to intervene. Dhoni, batting on the other side, had to stop his partner. The incident angered Yuvraj. And he vented his emotion in 19th over when Stuart Broad came to deliver the next 6 balls. And we remember very well how that over panned out.
Playing true to his class and aggression, Yuvraj hit 6 sixes in next 6 balls.
Here’s that fight between Yuvraj and Flintoff:
And then, of course, here’s that historic 6 balls, 6 sixes:
There are many more interesting and memorable fights on the cricket ground. Like the one when Harbhajan called Symonds a “monkey”. Or that incident during 2003 Antigua Test match went Glenn McGrath went berserk on WI batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan because the latter one allegedly said something bad about Glenn’s wife.
Also, there was an interesting incident in 1995 between Steve Waugh and Curtly Ambrose, who was famous for his “stares”. During a spell, Ambrose was shooting stares to Steve Waugh, when the latter got ***** and asked, “what the fu^k are you looking at?” This triggered Ambrose, there was an exchange between the two, and then Ambrose charged at Waugh when his teammates stopped him.
Later, in his autobiography in 2015, Ambrose revealed that he wanted to knock-out Waugh. Thank God his teammates got hold of him.
These are few of the memorable fights on the cricket ground. Of course, there are plenty more. But these are some that stands out in my opinion.
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90s kids won't forget about the Kiran More and Javed Miandad's interesting scuffle in a world cup match. In those times Pakistan and India matches were not less than a war. Always there were some cold wars going on in the field. The one I am talking about is between our Kiran more and Javed Miandad during the Prudential World Cup match. Watch it. So hilarious.