The 5 Most Heated Matches in Cricket

Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds /Getty Images

The 2008 Test series between India and Australia remains one of the purest examples of pressure and rivalries boiling over, with umpiring decisions at the heart of one of cricket’s most infamous moments.

With Ricky Ponting’s boys already one win up heading into the second Test, Anil Kumble and his team ended up on the wrong end of a series of incorrect calls by match umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson.

One of these decisions that went against India was Andrew Symonds escaping being dismissed on 30 runs, despite later confirming he had edged the ball behind, going on to score a match-winning 162.

Then, during India’s batting innings, Harbhajan was accused of calling Symonds a monkey, sparking outrage from the Australians and resulting in the iconic spinner initially receiving a three-match ban.

The Indian team threatened to abandon the tour, citing a misunderstanding, and the ban was successfully appealed in court, although relations soured between the teams and cricket boards of both countries.

In what legendary commentator Richie Benaud called one of the worst things he had ever seen, the first Test between Pakistan and Australia spilled over in one of the most infamous ways.

The contest in Perth in 1981 saw Dennis Lillee step in the path of Javed Miandad, with the Aussie bowler claiming he had been pushed aside by the Pakistani captain taking a single.

While the version of events has been debated, Lillee clearly kicked Miandad in the leg, with the Pakistani player raising his bat as a weapon, forcing umpire Tony Crafter to get in the way.

The incident has been described as one of cricket’s most undignified moments, with Lillee fined, the Pakistan Cricket Board lodging a complaint, and both teams wanting to boycott the tour.

While the rest of the matches eventually went ahead, there were rumblings about Miandad seemingly getting away unpunished, with Australia getting revenge with the 2-1 series win.

Even before England and Australia took to the field in Cardiff for the first 2009 Ashes Test, the mind-games had begun, with Kevin Pietersen and Mitchell Johnson clashing in odd fashion.

According to the Aussie pace bowler, the English batsman had intentionally been harassing them with his practice shots during warm-ups, with Johnson demanding that Pietersen stop.

Words were exchanged and Johnson later admitted that he had almost punched Pietersen, with Stuart Clark having to step between the two to prevent the altercation from getting physical.

The clash between the opposing players lit a spark in both teams, with Australia legend Michael Hussey later saying that losing that Ashes series to England was the worst feeling of his life.

Some clashes on the cricket field are tempered by time, yet the tension between Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi continues to simmer almost 20 years after their clash in Kanpur.

In a heated moment indicative of the historic India-Pakistan rivalry, which bears the weight of long-standing political tension, the two players clashed amid a 2007 One-Day International.

The performance of both men in the match also added fuel to their fire, with Afridi frustrated at conceding runs and Gambhir struggling to make a big impact at the top of the Indian order.

Things took a turn when the Indian batsman crashed into Afridi while taking a single - they exchanged heated words and squared up before umpire Ian Gould stopped any escalation.

Afridi was later fined 95% of his match fee and Gambhir fined 65%, with animosity refusing to die down and both men taking public jabs at the other despite the years that had passed.