During the second day of the fifth Test between India and England at The Oval on Friday, Indian batter KL Rahul had a heated exchange with umpire Kumar Dharmasena.
This happened after a verbal spat between England’s Joe Root and India’s Prasidh Krishna. Dharmasena tried to stop the argument, but Rahul stepped in to back his teammate. Rahul questioned the umpire, asking if he expected the Indian team to play emotionlessly.
Here’s how the conversation went:
Rahul: What do you want us to do? Be quiet?
Dharmasena: You wouldn’t want a bowler walking up to you, would you? You can’t do that. No, Rahul, we shouldn’t continue like this.
Rahul: What do you want us to do? Just bat and bowl and go home?
Dharmasena: We’ll talk at the match’s end. You can’t speak like that.
In the match, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s not-out 51 helped India reach 75/2 at the end of the day, giving them a 52-run lead.
India lost KL Rahul (7) and Sai Sudharsan (11), but they erased England’s 23-run first-innings lead, mainly because of Jaiswal’s good batting. Rahul was caught out by Josh Tongue, and Sudharsan by Gus Atkinson. Jaiswal was with night watchman Akash Deep (4 not out) when play stopped.
Earlier, England scored 247 in reply to India’s 224, taking a small lead. Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj each took four wickets, restricting England’s lead to just 23 runs.