It is one of the rarest occasions when Rahul Dravid lost his cool and threw his cap at the turf in anger. It is not very often that Indiranagar ka gunda tends to show his emotions to the world. Though those who witnessed him celebrating the T20 World Cup 2024 victory with him as the Head Coach would disagree when he displayed joy, back in 2014 it was a rare instance where Dravid would display his anger.
It was a virtual knockout between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals where the former needed to chase down 190 runs from 14.3 overs to qualify for the playoffs as that would ensure they would supersede Royals on the Net Run Rate (NRR). However, MI would fail to accomplish the task in the required amount of overs and it would seem like RR has qualified for the playoffs as they start celebrating and Ambati Rayudu who would get himself run out would bury his head into the ground in frustration.
Nevertheless, Aditya Tare coming onto bat would have different plans altogether as Mumbai would still have the slightest chance if the batter could have hit a boundary of the 14.4th delivery as it would take MI’s NRR over RR’s NRR. As James Faulkner delivers a knee-high full toss outside the leg stump Tare smacks it over the fine leg for a six.
Dravid who was quite confident about the qualification furiously would get out of his chair slam his cap on the turf and walk back into the dugout. Shane Watson who was the skipper too looked in disbelief after the result and the Mumbai players all came running into the ground to celebrate.
“Before that delivery, they thought they had qualified, because the scores were tied. Their dugout seemed pretty happy. But then we got the news that we have another ball to secure a playoff berth, only if we get a boundary. At first, we thought we hit a six, but then we realized we needed a four. But by then, I had already made up my mind to hit a six,” Tare would recall speaking on Star Sports.