Bjorn Fortuin trolls commentator Murali Kartik with his game-hanging spell at the Chinnaswamy

The third T20I at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru saw South Africa put on clinical performance. Spearheaded by the left-armers- Bjorn Fortuin and Beuran Hendricks with the ball and Quinton de Kock with the bat- the Proteas defeated hosts India by nine wickets to level the series 1-1.

At the heart of South Africa’s win was their clinical performance with the ball. While it was Beuran Hendricks who claimed the all-important wicket of Rohit Sharma before Kagiso Rabada got into his act, left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin impressed with his guile as well as his indiscipline.

The left-arm spinner, with his performance, also went on to troll commentator and former Indian spinner Murali Kartik. Interestingly, before Fortuin went on to bowl the decisive over that turned the game in the visitors’ favor, Kartik had remarked on air that the left-armer was just a ‘roller of the ball’ rather than a spinner.

And as fate would have it, Fortuin went on to dismiss both Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer in the very next over that he bowled and changed the whole complexion of the game. And, the manner of the dismissals displayed Fortuin’s guile. Knowing that the duo will go hard at him, the left-armer changed his line and length to bring about the downfall of Iyer and Pant.

Firstly, he darted one wide of off-side forcing Pant to mistime it straight at long-off while Iyer was also deceived by the line. Sensing the charge that the batsman was about to give, he darted one down the leg-side to have his stumps. Fortuin, 24, finished with figures of 2-19 in four overs and was one of the key reasons as to why South Africa was able to restrict the Men in Blue to a measly 9-134.

This isn’t the first time

Interestingly, it’s not the first time that a commentator has been trolled for his remarks by a cricketer. During the 2019 World Cup, Sanjay Manjrekar drew the irk from Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja after the former cricketer labeled him as a ‘bits and pieces cricketer’. The sly did not go down well with Jadeja who lashed out on Manjrekar on social media before scoring that breathtaking half-century in the semi-finals.