Team India are locking horns with the Afghanistan national cricket team in the ninth match of the ongoing edition of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023. The fixture is being held at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and opted to bat first. During Afghanistan’s innings, an interesting drama unfolded as soon as Naveen Ul Haq walked out to bat at No.9.
Just as he stepped onto the field to face the first ball, the entire crowd went berserk as they came up with “Kohli, Kohli, Kohli” chants, in what was a sight to behold. Switching to the commentary, Ravi Shastri was also taken aback by Virat Kohli’s chants as he reacted by saying, “I wonder why”. For the unversed, both Kohli and Naveen were involved in a heated altercation during the 16th edition of the cash-rich IPL.
The incident happened during the game between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore, in which Gautam Gambhir was also involved in the tussle. The video clip of the same went viral on the internet. Following the incident, the likes of Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir were penalized with 100 per cent of their match fees whereas Naveen-ul-Haq was docked 50 % of his match fees.
Fans go berserk with ‘Kohli, Kohli’ chants as Naveen Ul Haq walks out to bat
Meanwhile, during the ongoing game between India and Afghanistan, the fans tried to troll Naveen Ul Haq by chanting Virat Kohli’s name repeatedly in the penultimate over. Naveen took two runs off Jasprit Bumrah and incidentally, his shot went towards Virat Kohli at the fine leg. Kohli picked up the ball and quickly directed it towards KL Rahul. Just as when Naveen ran two, Kohli looked visibly upset as you can watch in the video.
Massive chants of 'Kohli, Kohli' as Naveen Ul Haq comes to bat.#ViratKohli𓃵 #INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/F98QGcp7d7
— Shreyaa (@Shreya_vk18) October 11, 2023
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Naveen-ul-Haq ended up scoring an unbeaten 9 off 8 balls including a four. In the end, Afghanistan ended up posting a pretty decent total of 272/8 in their quota of 50 overs. Skipper Shahidi top-scored with 80 runs off 88 balls including 8 fours and a six whereas Azmatullah Omarzai scored 62 off 69 (2 fours, 4 sixes). On the contrary, Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers as he registered 4/39 in 10 overs.