The disarming smile was replaced by a somber look and Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag simply cannot believe that he has been stoned at his home ground of Ferozeshah Kotla, of all places.
His team had just tamed the Deccan Chargers by 12 runs to snap the string of defeats but instead of looking upbeat, Sehwag looked thoroughly upset in the post-match press conference late Thursday night.
"Unfortunately, an Indian player has been pelted in India. It's a matter of shame that a stone was thrown at a Delhi player in Delhi," Sehwag said.
Asked to name the player, he said "Sehwag. I was fielding in the boundary line when it hit me."
The incident happened in the 19th over of the Deccan innings when Sehwag was fielding in the deep.
Sehwag praises Mishra's effort
The Daredevils skipper was suddenly seen rushing to umpire Brian Jerling to convey something and the match was held up for a few minutes.
Nobody outside had any clue about what was going on in the middle, which gave rise to speculation that probably the cheerleaders had been subjected to some taunts or something like that.
Sehwag, however, finally cleared the air in the press conference.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that the accusing finger was pointed at the Kotla crowd.
England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff claimed in his book 'Being Freddy' that he had been shot at here during an ODI against India in 2002.
"I felt something hit me and, looking down, saw pellets on the ground," Flintoff wrote in the book.
"You expect to have plastic bottles thrown at you when you are playing on the sub-continent, but you don't expect to be shot," he said.
The Delhi and District Cricket Association, however, rubbished Flintoff's claim.
Meanwhile, Sehwag looked far from worried even after he was out for his second successive duck in the IPL.
"It does not matter at all. Cricket is not about an individual. It's a team game and as long as the team keeps winning, I don't have any problem," he said, almost nonchalantly.
He also sought to dismiss the notion that the Daredevils relied too much on its top order and the middle order has a brittle look about it.
"To be honest, I can't blame the middle order. The fact remains that they are not getting a chance on most occasions, because the top order is finishing the job.
"I mean players like Manoj Tiwary or Rajat Bhatia have got just 2-3 chances so far because the top order was doing so well," he explained.
