The Virat Kohli- Naveen Ul Haq- Gautam Gambhir altercation was the majorly in the news for the past 2-3 days in the IPL 2023, which put Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) amazing win over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on the backburner.
During the 17th over of the LSG chase, Mohammed Siraj and Naveen Ul Haq got into a bit of altercation as the bowler having conceded eight runs off the first five deliveries of his third over, bowled a dot ball. Following this, Siraj proceeded to give a stare down to Naveen and threw the ball at the stumps at the batter’s end with Naveen well inside the crease.
Naveen and Siraj exchanged a few words and it was at that moment that Kohli intervened. LSG’s other batter, veteran Amit Mishra tried to pacify Kohli, but to no avail, as he copped some words from former RCB skipper as well.
However, a bigger controversy happened when camera caught Virat Kohli showing his shoe to Naveen Ul Haq and also plucked some dirt off it and showed it to the Afghanistani player.
Kohli copped a lot of criticism for this gesture, but now the real reason has been revealed why the ex-RCB skipper showed his boot to the Afghanistani pacer.
As per a report in Times of India, during their verbal altercation, Virat had apparently earlier pulled up Naveen-Ul-Haq for trodding on the pitch with spikes. And this was the reason, why he showed his boot to both the bowler and the umpire.
However, as is always the case, a lot of fake news and innuendo on social media immediately started doing the rounds, distorting the incident.
A source close to the developments told TOI:, "It was expected Kohli would turn up fired up in Lucknow. He was having a go at every LSG player right through the match. Naveen-ul-Haq was also not shying away when Kohli was batting. But things got out of hand during the chase. Kohli was gesturing to the crowd and mimicking Gambhir. And then he said something to Naveen while pointing at his shoe. Naveen was very upset.”
While Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir copped 100% match fees fines for their behavior on the field, Naveen Ul Haq also got a 50% match fees fine from the BCCI.
(Times of India inputs)
