Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) IPL 2023 clash on Monday featured some dramatic scenes between Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, and Naveen Ul Haq, both on the field and after the match ended.
The match was won by RCB who batted first and posted 126/9 in 20 overs with Faf du Plessis making 44 and Virat Kohli scoring 31 runs. In reply, Josh Hazlewood and Karn Sharma took two wickets apiece as LSG only managed 106 runs and lost by 18 runs in the end.
RCB's former captain Kohli and LSG mentor Gambhir could be seen having a rather heated discussion after the match before being separated by players of both sides. This was after some tensions arose throughout the game between Kohli and LSG's Naveen-Ul-Haq.
Many feel Kohli’s animated gestures after taking his two catches in the match were in response to Gambhir’s keep quiet gesture which he had made when LSG defeated RCB in Bengaluru earlier in the IPL 2023.
The duo clashed with one another after the match and their heated conversation ended when Amit Mishra and other LSG players separated the two to douse water on the fire. Both Kohli and Gambhir lost 100% of their match fees as fines, while Naveen Ul Haq lost his 50% match fees to fines.
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh recalled his infamous incident with Sreesanth during the IPL 2008 and appealed to Kohli and Gambhir to leave their differences behind and make a gesture of peace towards each other.
For unversed, Sreesanth was seen crying after a match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings). It was later revealed that Harbhajan Singh had slapped the pacer for which the then MI acting captain copped a lengthy ban from the tournament.
“This won't stop here. People will be talking about it, trying to dissect who did what. All this though, is talk on the outside. As a someone who has lived through something like this myself. It was something similar that happened between me and Sreesanth back in 2008. Today, 15 years later, I still feel ashamed thinking about it. At the time I felt what has happened as happened, I was right. But no, what I did was wrong,” said Harbhajan on his YouTube channel.
"Virat Kohli, you are a legend. There is no need for you to get involved in something like this. But he is such a passionate player that he felt he is involved in the game and it happened. People will try to find out if the mistake is Kohli's, Gambhir's or Naveen's but this picture that has been made is not good for cricket. You both such big players, both are my younger brothers and it is with this liberty that I say that there is no use of this.
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“I am bringing up my episode time and again because even today when I look back, I think I shouldn't have done that. I regret that a lot. I am sure you both will also think 15 years later why it was that we were fighting. It was a small matter, we could have solved it right there. We should make good memories. Please forget all this, just finish this matter. Meet each other, give each other a nice hug, cricket is made by you all, kids are watching you and as ambassadors of the game it is our responsibility to represent it in the right manner. So I hope both my brothers will make up and send out a good message,” said Harbhajan.
A few years later Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth were part of the Indian team which won the 2011 World Cup, which incidentally also featured Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir.
