Tri-series: Dhawal Kulkarni, Adam Zampa engage in verbal altercation

Chennai, Aug 7: India A pacer Dhawal Kulkarni was today involved in a verbal altercation with Australia A leg-spinner Adam Zampa at the fag end of the home team's mammoth chase of 335 runs during the second match of the cricket tri-series here.

The incident happened during the 41st over of India A's chase when Zampa was bowling his 10th and last over.

Interestingly, the matter dragged on to the next over when some close-in Australian fielders were seen exchanging words with Kulkarni and India's last man Sandeep Sharma, eventually forcing the on field umpires to intervene and douse the matter.

When Zampa was asked about the incident, he said: "It was something that happened on the field. Obviously, I was a bit fired up. Cricket is a game which should be played in the spirit. To me what the Indian players were doing was quite disappointing and couple of instances were not in the spirit of the game."

Australian opener Joe Burns, who was party to the incident, said such verbal confrontations are part and parcel of the game.

"I guess when teams are playing for their country they are going to be passionate in the game. I will be disappointed if both the teams do not play to win," he said.

He, however, said both the parities involved never crossed the line. "Zampa answered it. It didn't cross the line. You have to move on and focus on the next game."

Australian captain Usman Khawaja and his opening partner Burns smashed scintillating centuries as Australia A thrashed a hapless India A by a massive 119 runs. Chasing a mammoth 334 for 4, India A were bundled out for 215 in 42.3 overs.

PTI