On this day: Ugly spat between Rashid Patel and Raman Lamba breaks out

The 1990-91 Duleep Trophy Final was played between West Zone and North Zone. While the North Zone lifted the trophy with a brilliant show, the game, unfortunately, is remembered for all the wrong reasons. The game witnessed an on-field spat between Rashid Patel and the opposition batsman Raman Lamba.

It all happened in the second innings on the fifth day when the game had gone out of context thanks to the first-innings lead taken by North Zone. Lamba and Jadeja opened the innings and entertained the paltry crowd and the score had reached 59 in the 10th over when Rashid Patel lost his cool.

Coming from round the wicket, Patel bowled close to the danger area to Lamba and the latter expressed his annoyance. Then Rashid overstepped deliberately off the next ball and delivered a beamer at Lamba. And the next thing one knew was, he was running behind Lamba picking up a stump.

The scenes were stunning as nobody saw it coming and Lamba hid behind his partner Jadeja who unfortunately got hit as well. Later, Lamba had to use his bat as a shield to save himself. The crowd also joined in and started pelting stones on the playing area. The umpires then decided to call off the match a few minutes before Tea on the final day with North Zone winning the trophy.

This is P Vaidyanathan’s India ?? cricket ? 1991 features this picture
Original Sir Jadeja present. pic.twitter.com/cRmR9Y5q1V

— The Falling Sweep ✒️ (@thefallingsweep) January 2, 2021

However, the incident was taken seriously by the board as the disciplinary committee comprising Madhavrao Scindia, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Raj Singh Dungarpur was set up to look into the matter. Eventually, Rashid Patel was suspended for 13 months while Lamba, unfortunately, also faced a 10-month suspension.

Speaking about the incident to mid-day, Patel had later defended himself saying, “Look cricketers are generally good guys, but things happen in the heat of the moment when the pressure gets to you. In my case, the North Zone piled up 700 plus runs. To me, they were playing defensive cricket. I was provoked by Raman and got very angry.”