VIDEO | Chris ‘Ashwin’ Morris trolls Marcus Stoinis by fake-Mankading after dropping ball

Very few cricketers have brought about a revolution in the sport by doing something ‘controversial’, that too in T20 cricket, but Ravichandran Ashwin can boast of being one of the lot. His mankading of Jos Buttler in IPL 2019 not only divided opinions but also ended up instilling fear in the minds of the batsmen - irrespective of where they play - so much so that since then, more often than not, batsman have ensured to hold their ground when the ball is being delivered.

And today at the Sydney Showground Stadium, Chris Morris decided to take due advantage of Ravi Ashwin’s actions by trolling the non-striker. Chasing 143, after losing Nic Maddinson for a duck, the onus was on the duo of Marcus Stoinis and Nick Larkin to steady the ship for the Stars. With the score 10/1, Thunder’s Chris Morris steamed in to deliver the ball to Larkin, who was on strike.

And half-way through his run-up, the ball slipped and fell out of the bowler’s hand. Your average cricketer would pick up the ball and go back to the mark and deliver the ball, but not Morris. Instead, the South African decided to have some fun. After dropping the ball, Morris continued with his run-up anyway, all the way to the popping crease, and decided to fake a mankad on the non-striker Stoinis. 

The fake mankad didn’t matter, however, as Stoinis was in his crease anyway, but it did give a mini heart-attack to the Western Australian, who knew what would happen in the future should he attempt to take off before the ball is delivered. The prank from Morris invoked laughter throughout the ground and it eventually ended with a funny stare-off between the bowler and the batsman, with both the players taking the incident in a light-hearted manner.