NEW DELHI: Is there something called black magic? Does black magic work? During the IPL 2026 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings, a bizarre moment – described by fans as black magic – was caught on camera. A Sunrisers Hyderabad supporter holding a lemon appeared to perform a ritual that seemingly worked in the team’s favour.The incident occurred in the 17th over of Chennai Super Kings’ innings, with Shivam Dube at the crease and CSK at 154/7 while chasing 194. With Dube known for turning games around, SRH were desperate for his wicket.
In a video that has gone viral, a fan in the stands is seen taking a lemon, rotating it a few times while muttering words, and then gesturing towards Dube, who was preparing to face a delivery from Sakib Hussain. Moments after the gesture, the left-hander was bowled. The entire stadium erupted in celebration.How Dube got dismissed:Sakib Hussain to Shivam Dube – BowledSakib bowled a fast, full delivery at middle stump and Dube missed it completely. The ball came quickly off the pitch and hurried him as he tried to flick it. He was late on the shot, and the ball may have brushed his pad before hitting the stumps. Dube’s feet did not move much, and he looked like he was expecting a slower ball. He was disappointed as he walked back after scoring 21 off 16 balls.Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated CSK by 10 runs to move to fourth place in the points table, also snapping CSK’s two-match winning streak.“Lovely. When you have a bunch of young bowlers and you know they’re executing their plans well. They’re coming up with their own plans as well and bowling as per the plan. So it’s very good to see, you know, there’s a lot of less pressure on the captain to set the field because they are ahead of the game anyway. So it was lovely to see them doing their job today,” SRH captain Ishan Kishan said after the match.“(were they 20 short?) Yeah, 100% I feel, Abhishek got out pretty early, but still, after scoring 60-odd runs, always when we have ended up scoring 220, 230. We’ve always seen there are…. from the first three batters, there’s one batsman is always scored big runs. So we were missing on that today, but especially with this team, with this batting line-up, I feel, yes, we were 20 runs short maybe,” he said.“(trusting his young bowlers) Yeah, actually looking at them in practice sessions, giving their best, trying to get better and better day by day. So you have to trust your bowlers. This is a bunch of bowlers we have at this point of time and I think they are very keen on doing well. So that is the time when you just give them the ball and let them do what they want to. (on the pitch) I think it was a pretty good wicket to bat on, to be very honest. That’s why I’m saying we were, I think, 30-40 runs short. But yeah, a lot to learn from this game as well. Looking at the shot selection, I think we could have done better. (on the points table) Nah, to be very honest, we’re not looking at the points table right now. I know it’s a very long tournament. We need to keep our head down, take a game day by day, just one match at a time and let’s see how it goes,” Ishan said.
Poll
Was the dismissal of Shivam Dube influenced by the ritual?
SRH will next face Delhi Capitals on April 21.
