Rohit Sharma (R) reacts to the umpire ducking for cover after his shot© X (Twitter)
Indian cricket team skipper Rohit Sharma slammed a powerful shot straight down the ground that ended up making on-field umpire Chris Gaffaney run for cover during the Champions Trophy 2025 encounter against Australia in Dubai on Tuesday. Rohit looked in good touch against the Australia fast bowlers and on the final ball of the sixth over, he produced a brilliant shot straight down the ground off the bowling of Nathan Ellis. The shot came directly towards umpire Gaffaney who jumped to one side in order to avoid getting hit and the commentators were left amused by his reaction. Even Rohit could not help but smile at the incident and his reaction has gone viral on social media.
Coming to the match, skipper Steve Smith and Alex Carey struck fifties to guide Australia to 264 all out in the Champions Trophy semifinal on Tuesday.
Umpire Chris Gaffany’s reaction after Rohit Sharma hit the ball over his head#INDvAUS #INDvsAUS #RohitSharma pic.twitter.com/uyzMRuhV3K
— Mamta Jaipal (@ImMD45) March 4, 2025
Smith top-scored with 73 off 96 balls as he stitched two crucial partnerships, first with Travis Head (39) for the second wicket, which yielded 50 runs, and then with Marnus Labuschagne (29) for the third for another 56 runs.
After the departure of Smith in the 37th over, Carey (61) took charge to take Australia past 260.
For India, Mohammed Shami (3/38) grabbed three wickets while Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja took two wickets apiece. Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel got one each.
The Indian players took the field wearing black armbands in honour of domestic cricket legend Padmakar Shivalkar, who died in Mumbai on Monday due to age-related illness. He was 84.
(With PTI inputs)
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