While there have been quite a few instances of competitive cricket matches being stopped due to the presence of some or the other animal, a similar incident happened during a recent Lanka Premier League (LPL) match. In the Galle Titans vs Dambulla Aura LPL 2023 fixture, a snake was found inside the ground due to which the the match had to be halted. The players and commentators though saw the funny side of it as the ground officials tried to get the snake out of the ground.
All of this happened in the fifth over of Dambulla's innings when the umpires asked the players on the ground to stop the proceedings. Galle Titans star Shakib Al Hasan was seen having a converstaion with the batters regarding what was going on at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Soon after images of the snake on the cricket field went viral on social media, India's wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik trolled Bangladesh cricket team.
"The naagin is back. I thought it was in Bangladesh," he tweeted. Notably, Karthik made a reference to the Naagin dance celebration which the Bangladesh men's team has carried out after several of their wins and a gesture which hasn't gone down too well within the opposition camps.
Talking about this particular LPL match, the closely-fought contest went all the way down to the wire and was decided in the Super Over. Both the teams finished at 180 in their allotted 20 overs. However, in the one-over eliminator, Galle required 10 runs to win which they scored off the first three balls itself with Bhanuka Rajapaksa smashing a four and six off against Binura Fernando.
For Dambulla Aura, it was Perera, Ross and Kerr who faced the 6 deliveries but Rajitha delivered an exceptional over to keep Dambulla down to 9 off six balls.