‘Come on, the Hyderabad Cricket Association can provide proper dugouts’ - Sunil Gavaskar slams HCA after crowd's unruly behaviour disrupts SRH vs LSG clash

In the 58th match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Super Giants in the ongoing IPL 2023, on May 13, a controversy broke out when some of the home team fans reportedly threw nuts and bolts towards the LSG dugout in the first innings.

The match got halted for quite some time as umpires had to intervene. Some of the LSG support staff marched onto the field to protect themselves as police, later on, stepped into pacify the incident.

Speaking about the same, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar criticised Hyderabad Cricket Association for not providing proper dugouts for the safety of the players and the support staff. Simon Doull and Mpumelelo Mbangwa, who were part of the commentary panel too were vocal about the incident and condemned the act.

“A little crowd issue, we can say, a little crowd issue – which is never nice,” Simon Doull stated on air. “No, it isn’t,” replied Mpumelelo Mbangwa. “It’s the issue of that overturned no ball, the legal delivery and the complaints. The team are trying to make sure everything is okay, the Lucknow team, the visiting side.”

“What’s hard to understand is most dugouts have what we call flexi-glass. Here we have beach umbrella kind of thing, which is no protection. Come on, the Hyderabad Cricket Association can provide the proper dugouts rather than these makeshift things you see. Obviously, these are a problem, an issue,” Sunil Gavaskar added.

LSG beat SRH by seven wickets

As far as the match is concerned, the Krunal Pandya-led side was under tremendous pressure in the second innings but eventually managed to register a comfortable seven-wicket win. Chasing a target of 182 runs, Prerak Mankad hit 64* runs off 45 deliveries while Marcus Stoinis played a blistering knock of 40 runs off 25 deliveries.

Towards the fag end of the match, Nicholas Pooran wreaked havoc, scoring 44* off 13 deliveries as LSG managed to get the job done at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.