Delhi captain Ayush Badoni and Uttar Pradesh’s Nitish Rana exchanged heated words and had to be separated by the umpire during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) quarter-final at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday, December 11.
The altercation occurred in the first innings after Delhi was put to bat by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Rana, midway through his third over, verbally attacked Badoni as he took a single to the leg side. Badoni responded, escalating the situation, and umpire J Madanagopal had to step in to calm things down.
You can watch the video here:
https://x.com/gavaskar_theman/status/1866821476890067158?s=46
Rana, recently acquired by Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the 2025 IPL, has a tense history with both the Delhi team and the Delhi and District Cricket Association. The left-handed batter played for Delhi for 12 years, even succeeding Gautam Gambhir as captain in 2018.
However, after the 2023-24 season, he moved to Uttar Pradesh and has openly criticized the negative team environment in the Delhi setup. This isn’t the first time Rana has clashed with a Delhi player.
During the 2023 IPL season, while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), he had a heated exchange with Mumbai Indians’ (MI) spinner Hrithik Shokeen, for which he was fined 25% of his match fee at Wankhede Stadium.
On Wednesday, Rana finished with figures of 1-23 from three overs, taking the wicket of Priyansh Arya. Ayush Badoni’s 23-run cameo and Anuj Rawat’s explosive fifty helped Delhi reach 193/3 in the first innings of the knockout match.
Nitish Rana was removed by Ayush Badoni in the second innings
Chasing a challenging target, Uttar Pradesh were 38-2 by the sixth over, leading to Rana’s arrival at the crease. However, the left-handed batter was dismissed by Ayush Badoni’s part-time off-spin after just three balls in the following over.
Rana managed only two runs as the team relied on the in-form Priyam Garg, along with the finishing pair of Rinku Singh and Sameer Rizvi, to keep their hopes alive in the chase.
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