Mohammed Shami gives Sheldon Cottrell the military celebration send off

Whenever the West Indies play a game, Sheldon Cottrell’s unique celebration is never far off the headlines. The left-arm seamer got multiple opportunities to do that in his team’s World Cup clash with India at Old Trafford on Thursday. And this time, the opponent team also thought of reciprocating the same. The Caribbeans were blown away by India as they fell short of the Men in Blue’s score of 268 by a whopping 125 runs to crash out of the tournament.

Cottrell, a soldier by profession, comes up with the ‘march and salute’ celebration every time he picks a wicket to show his respect for the Jamaica Defence Force of which he is a member. In Manchester, the 29-year-old opened the West Indian bowling and took two wickets for 50 runs and came up with his trademark gesture after his success with the ball.

Later, Cottrell came out to bat at No.1o and did swing his bat to hit one out of sight. He scored 10 runs before being trapped in front of the wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal was the bowler and as the umpire gave his verdict against the West Indian, pacer Mohammed Shami was seen doing something mischievous – he was imitating Cottrell’s trademark celebration with a slight march and a salute.

Vijay Shankar and captain Virat Kohli were also seen laughing at Shami’s hilarious gesture. The Indian pacer was one of the two victims of Cottrell in the game and perhaps the Indian spearhead found it an ideal time to pay his counterpart back. In fact, Kohli was also seen trying to ape Cottrell on another occasion in the game.

Here is the video of Mohammed Shami performing the salute:

India bowlers had another field day

The Indian bowlers had yet another day of dominance on the ground. They never allowed the Windies to settle in the game and from 80 for 3, triggered a collapse to bowl them out for just 143 runs. Shami came up with yet another four-wicket haul after his superior show against Afghanistan while Jasprit Bumrah took 2 for 9 in six overs.

Earlier, India posted the score of 268 with help of Kohli’s 72 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 56 not out – a knock that only gained momentum with time. KL Rahul made 48 while Hardik Pandya scored 46.