Players fined for misbehaviour

The cliffhanger in Mysore might have been a fantastic advertisement for domestic cricket in India, but the game was marred by some heated exchanges between the two sides.

It was a trend that started with Ajit Agarkar's controversial run-out on the first day; he was fined 50% of his match fee for showing dissent at the umpire. Robin Uthappa hurled the ball to the ground in joy when Agarkar was dismissed in the second innings, for which he also lost half his match fee. Agarkar was incensed at Uthappa's behaviour and had a finger-wagging exchange of words with the umpire as he walked off. That cost him his remaining match fee.

Through the Karnataka second innings, there were plenty of needless incidents. When CM Gautham fell in the first over, Abhishek Nayar walked up to him and pointedly clapped him back to the pavilion. And on two occasions as the match wound down, Dhawal Kulkarni ran towards the batsmen he had dismissed and shook his right fist in their faces. He was also docked 50% of his match earnings.

And after the final wicket was taken, several members of the Mumbai team pointed stumps and gestured furiously towards the Karnataka dressing room and a section of the crowd.

The events didn't amuse Karnataka captain Uthappa much. "In crunch games like these tempers do flare," he said. "But I believed we handled it better and we didn't go making statements. We understood there would be a certain amount of banter but, in all honesty, I never expected a Mumbai side, which has claims of such a great attitude, to go out and report a few issues that seemed very silly."

Mumbai captain, Wasim Jaffer, one of the more reserved members of the side - his reaction on winning was to perform a quick sajda before running to grab a souvenir stump - defended his team. "Things got a little bit heated at times. Obviously I don't like that, I myself am a calm guy," he said. "I don't like to show my emotions too much but not all of them are like me. They want to do well in this game, it is an important game for their careers.

"At times, you feel bad and the emotions come out. As long as it doesn't go out of the limit that's okay, because at the end of the day, you are competing against each other.

"But yes, at some stages it did go out of limit. I won't point out specific instances but that's temper showing itself. Both teams wanted to win. At important stages, they felt bad and it did get out of hand."