New Zealand pacer Kyle Jamieson has admitted he was genuinely terrified of a 15-year-old, something he says has never happened to him before in his cricket career.
The teenager in question is Rajasthan Royals’ teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has taken the IPL by storm since his debut last year. However, in Friday’s match against Delhi Capitals, Sooryavanshi couldn’t replicate his heroics. He was cleaned up by a snorter from Jamieson for just 4 runs in the second over. What followed the dismissal made headlines as Jamieson celebrated aggressively, clapping loudly and staring intently at the young batter in a fiery send-off that many deemed excessive for a contest with a 15-year-old.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so fearful of a 15-year-old kid in my life,” Jamieson admitted. “But yeah, we have obviously done a little bit of planning leading into the game, and it was just nice that it paid off,” he said in a video released by IPL.
Jamieson’s in-your-face aggression, however, came at a cost. He was slapped with one demerit point and a warning for breaching Level 1 of the IPL Code of Conduct. The match referee found him guilty under Article 2.5, which penalises “using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from another player in the match.”
The incident occurred in the second over of the first innings when, after dismissing the 15-year-old Sooryavanshi, Jamieson was found to be close to him in an aggressive manner, which could have provoked an aggressive reaction from the batter. Delhi dismissed both openers by the second over as Mitchell Starc sent back Yashasvi Jaiswal after he was hit for a six, and then Jamieson castled Sooryavanshi.
Jamieson said they all knew the value of the wickets of RR’s openers. “For most teams looking at Rajasthan’s side, it’s their top two especially that have got them off to fliers. Starcy got one with the old high full toss, and I got one with the yorker, so it was nice to get it away early and sort of, I guess, stem the flow a little in the powerplay,” he said.
Australia pacer Starc marked his return to competitive cricket after a gap of more than three months and shone with the ball, picking three wickets in DC’s win over RR. On Starc’s return and bowling in tandem with him, Jamieson said, “He’s world class, right? So whenever you can have one of those guys in your squad, it’s a huge benefit. He came at the right time. We needed to get a bit of a move on the points table, so it’s nice to have him in, nice to share the new ball with him. Yeah, it’s pretty surreal.”
