The Covid-19 pandemic saw plenty of new rules being brought into cricket. While many rules were later removed as the restrictions eased, the one that remained intact is the ban on the usage of saliva on the ball. In the pre-Covid world, cricketers used to apply saliva on the ball to make it swing, however, the ICC has now banned it. The players nowadays can use their sweat to shine the ball. Since it has been a long time now since the change was brought, the players have adapted to it.
In a rare incident, Lucknow Super Giants spinner Amit Mishra was seen applying saliva on the ball while coming in to bowl the 12th over during the Royal Challengers Bangalore innings on Monday. Mishra's action was caught on camera.
Watch it here:
The umpires failed to notice that and interestingly, Mishra got the wicket of RCB opener Virat Kohli on the third ball of the over.
Talking about the game, Nicholas Pooran scored 62 runs off 19 balls as LSG chased down the target of 213 runs against RCB on the last ball of the match. LSG won the game by one wicket.
Marus Stoinis also helped LSG's cause with a fine knock of 65 off 30 balls.
Earlier, half-centuries from Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, and Glenn Maxwell guided RCB to 212 for 2 in 20 overs. Du Plessis remained unbeaten at 79 off 46 balls, while Virat and Maxwell were dismissed for 61 and 59 respectively.
LSG skipper KL Rahul had won the toss and opted to bowl first in the game.