A nasty exchange between Kieron Pollard of Mumbai Indians and Mitchell Starc of Royal Challengers Bangalore marred the IPL match between the two teams at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.

The West Indies man launched his bat at the Australian after Starc went ahead and bowled a delivery despite Pollard backing out during the bowler’s run-up. Scroll down to watch the full video.

The drama unfolded in the 17th over of the first innings of the clash, which Mumbai ended up winning by 19 runs to continue their fight back in this season’s competition. Both players were fined over the incident.

It all began from the fourth ball of the over, which Starc dug in short and Pollard took a huge swing at — but missed.

The bowler felt the need to have some stern words with the batsman, who was well-beaten by the delivery.

Pollard’s reaction was to nonchalantly wave his hand at Starc, sending him back to bowl the next ball. The Bangalore man was clearly not amused.

Then, with Starc well into his action ready to deliver the fifth ball of the over, something unsettled Pollard, who backed away.

However, Starc decided to send the ball down anyway. It’s unclear whether he had spotted Pollard moving away or was too far into the delivery to pull up, as would be the norm in such a case.

Pollard clearly thought he was being attacked, and retaliated by launching his bat towards his opponent.

Luckily he either hasn’t had much practice at throwing bats, or it slipped out of his hand, because the willow got nowhere near Starc.

A fuming Pollard had to be calmed down, first by the umpires...

...and then by West Indies teammate and IPL opponent Chris Gayle, who plays for Bangalore.

AB de Villiers also felt the need to have a word with Starc, as the experienced heads on the field calmed the situation down.

But the argument between the pair had already spoiled what was a tough battle between the two sides.

What do you think? Did Starc see Pollard back away and bowl the ball anyway? Was Pollard right to react the way he did? Are we going to see more ugly scenes like this in cricket? Let us know in the comment section below.

Watch a clip of the ugly encounter here:

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