IPL 2023: WATCH- Hrithik Shokeen’s send off to Nitish Rana angers the KKR skipper as they duel verbally

Shokeen dismissed Rana for 5 runs.

Mumbai Indians’ (MI) spinner Hrithik Shokeen and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Nitish Rana almost got into a fistfight during their team’s IPL 2023 match at the Wankhede Stadium on April 16.

MI is being captained by Suryakumar Yadav as Rohit Sharma is missing this match due to a stomach bug. For MI, Arjun Tendulkar and Duan Jansen made their IPL debuts.

Cameron Green gave KKR a good start as he removed N Jagadeesan for a duck and then Piyush Chawla accounted for Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 8 runs, while Venkatesh Iyer was rampaging at the other end, hammering the MI bowlers single-handedly.

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Nitish Rana came out to join him in the middle, but his stay was a short one as on the first ball of the 9^th over, MI spinner Hrithik Shokeen induced a false shot from him. Shokeen kept the ball away for Nitish Rana's range and after the batter stepped out and foxed him into hitting it to long on's hand.

This was followed by Shokeen giving Rana a verbal sendoff, which set the KKR skipper as he was already in foul mood due to a cheap dismissal. The verbal needling was enough for a furious Nitish Rana moving towards Shokeen who had turned his back to him.

It was Suryakumar Yadav and Piyush Chawla who cooled things down with Suryakumar having a hand on Rana’s shoulder to calm him.

Check out the action here: