A tense moment unfolded on the field during the four-day match between Bangladesh Emerging Team and South Africa Emerging Team in Dhaka on Wednesday. Tshepo Ntuli and Ripon Mondol became involved in a physical altercation, drawing attention from both players and commentators. However, no immediate action has been taken by the match officials yet, as the protocol requires the on-field umpires to submit an official report before any sanctions are imposed.
The altercation began after Ripon Mondol hit a straight six off Ntuli. As Ripon walked back to his batting partner Mehidy Hasan, it appeared that a stare-down occurred between the two players. This led to Ntuli charging toward Ripon, and the situation quickly escalated as the two exchanged shoves. Ntuli grabbed Ripon’s helmet, and despite umpire Kamruzzaman’s efforts to intervene, the situation continued to escalate before the umpire was able to separate them.
South Africa Emerging players watched the incident unfold and even seemed to move toward Ripon, who had by then removed his helmet. The scuffle was met with strong reactions from the TV commentators, with Nabil Kaiser stating, “This is extreme, this is unacceptable. Normally we see verbal altercations, but this scuffle is something else. Ntuli even struck Ripon’s helmet at one point.”
The tension didn’t end there. Three balls after the scuffle, Ntuli threw the ball at Ripon after the batter had defended it back to him, with Ripon managing to avoid the throw just in time.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the match referee will submit a detailed report on the incident to both the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Cricket South Africa (CSA). As this is the final game of the tour, action is expected to be taken in response to the altercation.
Tensions had already been building between the two teams during the one-day leg of the tour in Rajshahi. Andile Simelane and Jishan Alam were both suspended for separate incidents in the second one-day match, which kept them out of the third game. The ongoing four-day match is the second and final game of the tour for South Africa Emerging. They lost the one-day series 2-1, while the first four-day match in Chattogram ended in a draw.
