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Sydney Test: Play halted at SCG, 6 fans evicted from stands after complaints from Indian players

Written by Vishwas Gupta

Play was halted for a few minutes in the second session on the fourth day of the third Test between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday, after the visiting players complained to the umpires about disturbance from a section of crowd.

It is not yet clear what the the complaints from Indian players were but they brought to attention unruly behaviour from fans who were later removed from their seats.

On Saturday, Indian team management had lodged a complaint about two of their players – Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj – having faced racial abuse from a section of the SCG crowd.

It is unclear yet what was said on Sunday when it was Siraj once again who raised the issue with the umpires with Ajinkya Rahane walking over to square leg umpire Paul Reiffel at the start of a Bumrah over. After few moments of discussion where Siraj pointed his fingers at a group of fans, the umpires ventured towards the fine leg fence where he was fielding. Soon security was called in and television pictures showed a set of fans being evicted from the venue.

It was a day after a drunk spectator at the SCG allegedly directed racial abuse at Indian players. The BCCI has lodged a complaint with the ICC, PTI had reported.

During the second session of the fourth day on Sunday, India players huddled in the centre after Siraj, standing at the square leg boundary, complained of abuse. It happened not long after Siraj was hit for two consecutive sixes by Cameron Green in his over.

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Vishwas Gupta