October 11 marked a big eight-wicket win for India against Afghanistan. While Rohit Sharma made headlines for breaking several records en route to his 131, an old rivalry shared the spotlight as well. The Delhi crowd chanted ‘Kohli-Kohli’ to tease Naveen-ul-Haq. But Virat Kohli and Naveen put an end to the conflict by shaking hands and hugging each other. Kohli even signalled to the crowd to stop changing his name to tease the Afghan pacer. After the clash, Naveen revealed the conversation with Kohli on the field.
"Crowd will chant for their home cricketers and that is what they did. It is his (Kohli's) home ground. He is a nice guy, a good player and we shook hands.
"It (what happened) was always in the ground, it was nothing outside the ground. People make it big. They need that stuff for their followers. He said (today) 'we are done with that and I said yes we are done with that. We shook hands and hugged," Naveen told PTI.
The two were involved in an ugly spat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Both cricketers faced consequences for breaching the Code of Conduct as Kohli and Naveen faced fines of 100 per cent and 50 per cent match fees respectively.
During India’s run chase, Naveen was disciplined against Kohli and mostly bowled back-of-the-length deliveries that he was not able to drive easily. Kohli faced 10 deliveries and scored three singles as he was cautious against the pacer.
However, once set, Kohli took on other Afghan pacers and completed his second half-century on the trot in World Cup 2023. He remained not out for 55 off 56 balls as India won the game by eight wickets with 15 overs to spare. This was Kohli’s 68th ODI century. He also surpassed Sachin Tendulkar on the list of most runs in International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments.
Before the game, Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi tried to downplay the conflict as well. "See, as you mentioned before also, like India is our home, it was our home, we played here and the people of India give a lot of love to Afghanistan people. And what happened on the ground, that aggression comes to every player, it's not about India and Afghanistan. So, it can come to everyone," Shahidi had said in a pre-match press conference.
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