Peshawar Zalmi batter Ben Cutting and Quetta Gladiators bowler Sohail Tanvir were engaged in a feud last night in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2022. It was a cracker of a contest as both teams fought hard to cement their position for the PSL playoffs.
Cutting smashed the left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir for three successive sixes in the 19th over of the first innings. The Australian then raised the middle finger of both his hands while looking at Tanvir.
This led to a heated verbal exchange between both the players and lastly, the on-field umpire had to intervene and disrupt their fight. The fight continued between both the players till the final over of the innings. Sohail Tanvir hit back on the Aussie cricketer Ben Cutting after taking a regular catch off Naseem Shah’s bowling.
Actually, the rivalry between the two dates long back. During a match between Guyana Amazon Warriors and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in Caribbean Premier League 2018, Tanvir, who represented Guyana, gave the infamous double-finger send-off to Cutting after dismissing him. It seems Ben Cutting had not forgotten the earlier incident and gave it back to Tanvir after 4 years in this match.
A similar incident repeated after 4 years took social media by storm and the duo also received heavy criticism for their uncalled-for actions. Tanvir was also penalized 15% of his match fee for making the obscene gesture. He accepted the sanction handed to him by match referee Denavon Hayles.
Speaking of the match last night, after electing to bat first, Peshawar Zalmi scored 185/7 in their stipulated 20 overs. Having lost two wickets inside six runs, Zalmi looked in all sorts of trouble. However, half-centuries from Shoaib Malik and Hussain Talat kept them afloat. Later came Ben Cutting who did some power hitting in the death overs. In the chase, Quetta Gladiators could only manage to reach 161/8 as the Zalmi bowlers were dominant over their batters.
