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Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has picked his side in the recent verbal scuffle between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq which sparked in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 1 (Monday).
Ex-Pakistan's star all-rounder has come to Naveen's rescue and told a local news channel that stating that Naveen only reacts when provoked unnecessarily.
During the match, RCB posted a lowly 126-run total in their stipulated 20 overs. In reply, LSG's batting order saw a massive collapse which brought Amit Mishra and Naveen in the middle for the ninth wicket. Kohli, who was pumped and animated through the entire match, got engaged in a verbal spat with Naveen which led to a massive uproar during the match. The argument between the duo didn't stop there, as it snowballed post the match which saw the another scuffle between Gautam Gambhir and Kohli.
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Post the match, players from both the teams lined up to shake hands with each other but Kohli-Naveen came one-on-one yet again. LSG mentor Gambhir too stepped in and went face-to-face with Kohli to reignite their old rivalry.
Notably, Shahid Afridi too had a similar scuffle with Naveen back in Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2020. However, this time around he cleary has his stance inclined with Naveen as Shahid Afridi said,"Naveen only reacts when someone bugs him unnecessarily. I have seen him bowling often, he gets hammered as well, but he never tried to pick up fights with anyone. I can’t recall if I have ever seen him this much aggressive".
"Every team has a certain ratio of aggressive players, we do too, and it's normal. It happens. Fast bowlers are innately like that", Shahid Afridi added.
The troika who was involved in the scuffle bore brunt and were slapped with hefty fines. Under Article 2.21 of IPL’s Code of Conduct, Kohli (Rs. 1.07 Crore), and Gambhir (Rs. 25 lakhs) were been fined 100 per cent of their match fee as a Level 2 violation. Meanwhile, Naveen was fined with 50 per cent of the match fee under Level 1 code violation.
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