VIDEO | Rampant Anrich Nortje mimics SKY’s ‘calma’ celebration after trapping him with brutal bouncer

There was a reason Suryakumar Yadav was being talked about as the best number three in IPL 2020 and he showed exactly why today, in the Qualifier 1 against Delhi Capitals in Dubai. Walking in at 16/1, on the back of Rohit Sharma’s dismissal, SKY, like he’s done all season, kept the foot on the accelerator and ensured Mumbai breezed through their innings at a healthy rate. Taking both the spinners and pacers on, he raced off to his fourth fifty of the season in 36 balls and at one point, it looked like there was no stopping him. But well, that’s where Anrich Nortje put his hand up. 

With MI 96/2 after 11 overs, looking primed to post a total north of 180, Delhi needed a breakthrough and so Shreyas Iyer went to his go-to man, Anrich Nortje. The SKY vs ‘Nokia’ battle was well and truly on and while a boundary on ball three threatened to sway victory towards the batsman’s way, Nortje, two balls later, struck back with vengeance and proved exactly why he isn’t someone to be messed around with. 

On the fifth ball of the 12th over, having bowled a dot on ball four, Nortje, having already come close to dismissing SKY earlier in the innings with a snorter, aimed for the batsman’s helmet and bowled a nasty, pacy bouncer. SKY, looking to accelerate, threw the kitchen sink at it but to his dismay, he shanked it and the ball went straight into the hands of Daniel Sams at fine leg, who gobbled it up safely. 

Normally, this would be the end of the action but here’s where things got spicier. For reasons only he knows, Nortje, after dismissing SKY, much to the astonishment of fans, mimicked the Mumbaikar’s ‘calma’ celebration. SKY had pulled off the celebration after hitting the winning runs versus RCB and today, well aware of the incident, the South African quick impersonated SKY to add insult to injury. Now that’s something we did not see coming.