3 times cricketers celebrated too early

Some people play cricket with all the passion in their hearts. Such enthusiasm is necessary for one to become a professional and can help you achieve great results. Sometimes when players think that their hard work has finally paid off and that their goal has been reached, they allow themselves to celebrate, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Unfortunately, sometimes these celebrations can turn out to be a little premature. In cricket, we’ve seen plenty of moments when an early celebration from a player came back to haunt them, which is precisely the topic of this article. Read on about three examples of players jumping the gun on their celebrations.

Ashwin’s Early Celebration

The first incident we’re going to talk about today took place when Tamil Nadu played Karnataka in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final in 2019. The match was very tense right until the very end. Tamil Nadu needed five runs from four balls to win, and Ravichandran Ashwin allowed himself to celebrate since he thought that the match was already won.

Unfortunately for him, the bowler Krishnappa Gowtham didn’t think so and managed to defend the score by holding his nerve. In the end, Tamil Nadu was one run short of victory, and Karnataka won the trophy.

Gibbs’ Dropped Catch

Many cricket fans will remember this event even though it has been more than 20 years since it happened. The incident in question occurred at the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup during a super six match between Australia and South Africa. The moment ended up having enormous significance for the tournament as a whole, even though it was only a single drop catch.

If you’re a younger cricket fan or only follow the latest cricket news, here’s some context. The Aussies were struggling as South Africa put a massive score on the board. The captain of the Australian team, Steve Waugh, was doing all he could to keep his team in the game when he chipped one ball in the air by mistake.

It looked like it would all be ok for the Proteas as Herschelle Gibbs caught the ball easily. Unfortunately, it then slipped from his hand as he attempted to throw it up in celebration. The umpire ruled that Gibbs hadn’t held on to the ball long enough for it to be declared a catch.

Guanaratne’s Wrong Count

The final premature celebration we’re going to discuss in this post occurred when South Africa played against Sri Lanka in 2017. The match took place in Cape Town, and it was a series decider. The visitors needed five runs from three balls to win, and Guanaratne managed to smash the ball for four.

He thought it was over without realizing that his team needed another run for a victory. However, unlike the previous two stories, this one did result in a happy ending for the player in question. When Gunaratne’s batting partner Seekkuge Prasanna explained the situation, Gunaratne came back and managed to score a run off the very next ball, resulting in a pitch invasion by the entire Sri Lankan team.