Chris Morris imitates Ravichandran Ashwin, tries to mankad Marcus Stoinis in Big Bash League

Mankading a batsman is a controversial mode of dismissal popularized and named after Indian legendary all-rounder Vinoo Mankad, who ran out non-striker Bill Brown on a tour of Australia. Often seen as unsportsmanlike behaviour from bowlers, as it involves running out the non-striker batsman, who is trying to gain an advantage by straying out of his crease.

Recently, during the Indian Premier League edition of 2019, an instance was at the display, when Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin ran out opposition Rajasthan Royals’ batsman Jos Buttler, as the match was going into the pocket of Royals as Buttler had given them a good start.

This dismissal resulted in a massive backlash for Ashwin, who said that he did it as it was in rules of the game and Buttler was habitual in leaving the crease early. A similar incident happened in the BBL 09 season, as Thunder’s Chris Morris tried to emulate Ashwin.

Chris Morris jokingly mankads Marcus Stoinis

On Thursday, January 2, Sydney Thunder faced off against Melbourne Stars and Thunder’s bowler Chris Morris tried to mankad Stars’ Marcus Stoinis, who was at the non-striker end. As the South-African fast bowler ran in to bowl, he lost grip of the ball, which went towards the mid-off fielder. Stoinis was not aware of this misfortune, and Morris decided to have some fun, as he mockingly mankaded the Australian all-rounder.

Stoinis was stunned for a second before realizing what had happened and replied to Morris’ laugh with a smile of his own. Morris had done a similar thing in the 2019 World Cup as well when he had warned Indian opener, Rohit Sharma, with a mocked Mankading, as the Mumbaikar strayed outside the crease at the non-striker’s end.

The official BBL Twitter handle shared the video of Morris’ hilarious mock mankad with the caption, “The attempted-no-ball-mankad-fake… Chris Morris has that move perfected! #BBL09”

Meanwhile, Thunder batted first in the match and put on 142/7 in their 20 overs with Alex Ross top-scoring with 40 and wicketkeeper Matthew Gilkes making 28 runs. Haris Rauf picked 3/24, while Stars’ skipper Glenn Maxwell got 2/17. In the chase, Stoinis made 58 and Nick Larkin slammed 65, as wickets fell around them. These two were able to take the team to the victory with 3 wickets in hand with 2 balls to spare.

Daniel Sams picked 3/25, while Chris Morris and Nathan McAndrew picked two wickets each. Melbourne Stars registered their fourth win out of five matches with 8 points, while the Thunder lost their second match out of six played, having 7 points to their name.