Naveen-ul-Haq, an elite pacer, got into a verbal altercation with former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli during the match between Lucknow Super Giants and RCB earlier in the IPL 2023 season. Gautam Gambhir too became involved soon after, as their teammates from their respective squads had to finally separate them. Later, when Gambhir and Kohli received 100% of their match costs in fines and Naveen received 50%, the IPL committee also got involved.
Days after the incident, Avesh Khan and the pacer participated in a special show, and the video of that performance was released on the LSG official Twitter account. Naveen-ul-Haq admitted that he has never made a habit of slamming people up front. But he remembered a hilarious thing that had happened in local cricket.
“I don’t slam people in the face; it’s not my habit. There is an incident from a top-tier match. The batter on strike got smacked when I was on the non-striker’s end. The fielder on the absurd point had just gotten hitched. He said, “I just got married yesterday; I need to go home and finish some work. It’s the last wicket, so let’s finish this quickly.”
The situation that occurred was humorous, Naveen-ul-Haq recalled.
Notably, the tension between the two cricketers on the field also appeared on social media; the next day, both cricketers shared cryptic Instagram stories.
LSG and RCB are competing to advance to the IPL playoffs.
Even though LSG and RCB are now outside of the top four in the IPL points table, if they are successful in winning their remaining games in the league stage, they will be able to advance to the playoffs. The Lucknow-based team will play Sunrisers Hyderabad (May 13), Mumbai Indians (May 16), and Kolkata Knight Riders (May 20), while RCB will play Rajasthan Royals (May 14), Sunrisers Hyderabad (May 18), and Gujarat Titans (May 21).
After 11 games, LSG has 11 points and RCB has 10, giving them about equal chances to finish in the top four.