‘I’m a big Cristiano Ronaldo fan’

South African pacer Wayne Parnell brought out Cristiano Ronaldo's new goal celebration during the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2022 match between South Africa and Team India at the Perth Stadium on Sunday. With Rohit Sharma's men suffering a rare batting collapse in their crucial Super 12 encounter against the Temba Bavuma-led side, the onus was on in-form Suryakumar Yadav to stage India's comeback in the low-scoring encounter at Perth.

In the final overs, Suryakumar held the key for India to post a big total on the board, but he was dismissed in the 19th over by Wayne Parnell. As soon as the batter was dismissed, Parnell copied Ronaldo's trademark celebration, which is popular as "zen celebration" or "peace of mind" celebration.

This mode of celebration was done by Ronaldo when he registered his 700th club goal during the match against Everton.

"I'm a big Cristiano Ronaldo fan and obviously Man U [Manchester United] fan as well. He's been going through a little bit of tough time recently," Parnell said in a video posted by Cricket South Africa on facebook. 

"But one thing I've always liked is his resilience, and that's something I've always taken on as well. You know like that 'Never say die' type of attitude and always wanting to put performance for the team," he added. 

The South African pacer also removed Dinesh Karthik and Ravichandran Ashwin in the low-scoring thriller between the two teams at Perth. Parnell bagged three wickets and leaked 15 runs in 4 overs. Parnell's teammate Lungi Ngidi emerged as the pick of the bowlers for South Africa. The Proteas pacer picked up crucial wickets of KL Rahul, Rohit and Virat Kohli in the powerplay.