However, a couple of scribes who were seated a row in front of the girl before she went to the stage, said they heard her telling an accompanying boy to click her photo the moment she did 'the act'. 'At that time we did not realise what she was up to,' the journalists said.

Irfan later told the organisers that he was on his guard after the girl propositioned the kiss.

'I kept a watch on her. The moment I saw her move, I reacted and blocked her.'

In the end, it was also the difference between the heights of the tall cricketer and the girl that saved the blushes for Irfan.

The incident is reminiscent of present Indian cricket team captain M.S. Dhoni being hugged and kissed publicly by a frenzied female fan at the Eden Gardens two years back.

Dhoni, who was then yet to take over as the team skipper, was in the city for a conditioning camp ahead of the Indian cricketers' tour to Bangladesh when Haseena Nasreeb Shiuli of Berhampore in Murshidabad district grabbed him after breaking the security cordon.

Shiuli, a die-hard Dhoni fan, kissed him as he came down from the team bus to give an autograph.