Tamil Nadu batter Baba Aparajith involved himself in an ugly verbal altercation with umpires and fellow opposition players for a considerable length of time while playing for Jolly Rovers Cricket Club during the recently concluded Tamil Nadu Division 1 match against Youngsters Cricket Club.
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Aparajith, who has an experience of 100 List A and 90 First-Class matches under his name, is yet to make his maiden appearance in the Indian Premier League. This, despite having been a part of Chennai Super Kings for three consecutive seasons in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
As he continues to put in the hard yards for his state team and keep up with his determined effort of climbing to the top of international cricket ladder, a fair share of his previous rotten luck has arguably caught him by his collar yet again.
Baba Aparajith Fights With Umpires After Being Adjudged Out During TNCA Division 1 Match
En route a 164-run target, Jolly Rovers Cricket Club’s scorecard read 74/2 with Aparajith (34) and Sai Sudharsan (67*) at the crease. During the 18th over being bowled by Youngsters Cricket Club skipper Hari Nishaanth, a delivery of his kept low and struck Aparajith’s front pad. As the ball lobbed up, the fielder at short leg took a relatively simple catch lunging forward.
The umpire straightaway adjudged Aparajith LBW even before the catch was completed. However, Aparajith, who seemed to signal to the umpire that there was no bat involved, couldn’t believe his eyes after looking at the sight of the raising finger.
Post the batter questioning the decision, the umpire perhaps had a brain-fade moment and suggested that he had adjudged him out caught. While we cannot remark exactly what was going through the umpire’s mind, he perhaps had an afterthought that he had wrongly adjudged him out LBW, and tried to compensate his error by impulsively stating it to be a caught dismissal.
However, Aparajith seemed to be appalled at whatever explanation the umpire had to offer with respect to his decision, and was just not in the mood to walk off. As the live proceedings further played out, the disagreement between the batter and the two umpires invoked the ire of the opposition team members as well. The verbal ding-dong now also began to take place between the two batters and a couple of their opponents.
Ultimately, after aroud five minutes, Aparajith decided to walk off in anger, as the umpire seemed to suggest that he has been adjudged out caught. However, a couple of looks at the replays suggested that not only was the ball sliding down the leg-side post the impact, but there didn’t seem to be any bat involved either. With no DRS available, one would have to feel for Aparajith and his rotten luck.
‘The Umpire’s decision is final’
Baba Aparajith: Hold my bat! pic.twitter.com/A4Cd6sOV8g— FanCode (@FanCode) August 9, 2023
“I was confident that some team would pick me” – Baba Aparajith After Getting Unsold During IPL 2018 Auction
Baba Aparajith was first signed by CSK during IPL 2013 auction. The franchise then bought him back at his base price of INR 10 lakh during the auction ahead of IPL 2014. Chennai retained him for another couple of years. With the team getting banned for a couple of seasons, the batting allrounder was roped in by Rising Pune Supergiants during the 2016 player auction at the same amount.
The petty, lowlife-like manner in which fortune sometimes operates, the Tamil Nadu batter was not handed even a single IPL match all these five years. To make matters worse, his ill-fortune dug another hole for him to fall into as he remained unsold during IPL 2018 players auction.
“I was confident that some team would pick me given that I was with a couple of IPL teams for five years. I felt some side would bid for me. But I felt disappointed. Had I got four or five games during those five years and failed, then I would have at least been thinking ‘okay I failed when given a chance’ and then went unsold. Had I played and went unsold, I would term it a reality check. But I never got a game and didn’t get picked now. That was disappointing,” exclaimed Aparajith during an interaction with Times of India post the selection snub.
Ahead of the auction date that year, Aparajith was called-up by Mumbai Indians to take part in their trials. However, there was no response from their strategists at the auction.
