Former Australian opener and Star performer of the Australian team, Matthew Hayden was not pleased by Riyan Parag’s saucy catch celebration. Parag took a clean catch in the deep mid-wicket region to dismiss Marcus Stoinis off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling during Rajasthan Royals’ previous game against Lucknow Super Giants. However, it was Parag’s controversial celebration that drew the most attention, not the grab.
Riyan Parag gestured that he had taken a clean catch before the ball had hit the ground. He appeared to be mocking the third umpire for ruling one of his catches unclean early in the match. Parag came running from long-on in the 19th over and appeared to have taken a fantastic catch. Following a review of the replays, the third umpire determined that the ball had touched the ground already when Parag grabbed it.
Matthew Hayden’s take on this mocking controversy
Discontented with the decision, Riyan Parag took a hit on the third umpire after taking Stoinis’ catch. Hayden, who was on-air at the time, was irritated because he gave the youngster some advice. “I’ve got some advice for you young man, cricket is a very long game, and we all have very long memories, and you never ever tempt fate because it comes around quickly enough,” the former opener said.
Meanwhile, Riyan Parag has been absolutely brilliant on the field since the beginning. He has already taken a total of 17 catches in this edition of IPL. He has also delivered some excellent knocks towards the end, as Rajasthan Royals is almost certain to make it into the playoffs. The Men in Pink advanced to second place on the team leaderboard with a convincing 24-run victory over LSG, bringing their total to 16 points on 15th May.
“We have been taking some good decisions. It is very hard to maintain a chilled out atmosphere when things don’t go your way. Credit to the boys. You keep on losing here and there. We want to go out there and express ourselves as a batting unit. We have a quality bowling lineup to defend,” stated RR skipper Sanju Samson after the game.
