Watch: Harshit Rana stands up to Soumya Sarkar in a heated exchange

The semifinal of the emerging teams’ Asia Cup in Colombo played on Friday (July 21) took ugly turns when young Indian fast-bowler Harshit Rana was seen standing up to the experienced Bangladesh player Soumya Sarkar in a heated argument. 

Rana and Sarkar engaged in a mouthful with a dismissal in contention at the critical stage of the Bangladeshi run-chase versus India’s young turks. It concerned Sarkar, who had seemingly inside edged an in-drifter from off-spinner Yuvrajsinh Dodiya and was caught at first slip by Nikin Jose, but refused to leave his ground. 

Sarkar stood there and queried even as the standing umpire gave him out after Jose had sprinted across and dived to take a fine catch with his left hand. While the Indian team started celebrating the breakthrough, the Bangladeshi left-hander, the most experienced international player part of this youth Asia Cup, didn’t leave his crease and exchanged words with Rana, who had yelled at him indirectly close to the mic. 

Fuming at that, Sarkar stood his ground and started an ugly exchange with Rana, who, thankfully, was quite far off the left-hander celebrating the wicket with his teammates at that point. The bowler could be heard telling the left-hander he was out and must leave the crease now. 

The Sarkar-Rana angry duel in Colombo 

The incident is from the second ball of the 26th over in the Bangladesh run-chase, which was at a tricky point, having slipped from 70/0 to 130/4 chasing 212 on a dry surface in the tournament knock-out in Colombo. With Sarkar’s wicket being key, India were delighted when they got the experienced left-hander to inside edge a delivery from Dodiya, which ricocheted off his pads to end in the hands of the diving Jose at first slip. 

As umpire raised his finger to Jose’s appeal, the Indian team started celebrating. Rana, when he was crossing the batter, who stood his ground, yelled “come on!!!” near the stump mic before joining his teammates in celebrations for the wicket. 

India vs Bangladesh – never short of some heat 🔥
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.#EmergingAsiaCup2023 #INDAvBANA pic.twitter.com/xxnMx8Arez

— FanCode (@FanCode) July 21, 2023

The anger in Rana’s voice was noted by Sarkar as he threw a word at the Indian seamer. The pacer then responded asking why is he still farming the crease and should be leaving his ground when he has been declared out. 

Rana was stepping forward at the defiant batter but we thankfully had the Indian players intervening on time and the matter wasn’t allowed to escalate further. Sarkar, too, finally accepted his fate and went off.