Tempers flared on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final between Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir in Hubli on Wednesday (February 25). After a superb opening day, the visitors continued to consolidate their position and reached 527/6 before rain brought a premature end to the close of play.
J&K ended the opening day at 284-2 with Shubham Pundir (117*) and Abdul Samad (52*) helping them to gain the upper hand. Captain Paras Dogra had to retire hurt after copping a series of blows on the body, including one that deflected off his forearm into the helmet. Pundir and Samad, though, couldn't add much to their overnight scores as Prasidh Krishna dislodged them in the first hour of the second day.
Jammu and Kashmir, however, kept digging in with fifties from Kanhaiya Wadhawan (70) and skipper Paras Dogra (70) with the latter returning back from injury to put on a captain's show. Sahil Lotra also chipped in with a fifty as Jammu and Kashmir soared past the 500-run mark by grinding Karnataka's attack.
The second day's play was about old-school long format batting but the highlight was the intense verbal attacks between the two teams. As frustration started to creep into their minds, Karnataka's players led by Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul and KV Aneesh were all involved in sledging to get under the skin of the batters.
Dogra and Agarwal were involved in an intense verbal onslaught, and the J&K captain seemed particularly annoyed at Karnataka's sledging. So much so that he went on to attempt a headbutt on Aneesh who had been chirping away from short leg. It wasn't as vicious as Zinedine Zidane's famous headbutt from the 2006 FIFA World Cup final against Italy, but it still was a big moment in the day.
The umpires had to get involved but they couldn't really tone down the aggression levels on the park. However, later on, Dogra and Prasidh were seen having a relaxed conversation, which implied that a lot of the sledging had died down, as it they should over the course of a cricket match.