Virat Kohli has a huge fan base. Crowds flock to the stadiums to catch one glimpse of him and chant his name. As Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) faced Mumbai Indians (MI) in a crucial encounter at home, Naveen-ul-Haq was teased by Kohli fans when he was fielding at the boundary. The LSG crowd started chanting ‘Kohli-Kohli’ to trigger a response from Naveen who had a verbal spat with former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper that embroiled into a huge controversy. Naveen did not lose his cool and gestured the crowd to chant even louder in the viral video that has been making rounds on the internet.
The Afghan recruit was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for breaching for Level 1 offence under Article 2.21 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Code of Conduct. On the other hand, Kohli and LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir were fined 100 per cent of their match fee for committing Level 2 offence under Article 2.21 of IPL Code of Conduct.
Naveen had the altercation with Kohli when he was batting in LSG’s run chase. More than 10 days later, the Afghan pacer was asked by teammate Avesh Khan to reveal his favourite sledging incident to which he said, “I have never sledged anyone at first, that's not my habit. There was a First Class game where I was at the non-striker's end with whom I had a bit of a sledging incident. The guy fielding at slip position was recently married. He asked us to finish the game quickly as it was the last wicket. He said he needed to go home because of some work. That is one sledging incident I remember from a first-class game.”
When Avesh tried to get a response from Naveen about the recent incident, the 23-year-old responded with a smirk as he said, “A serious one has never happened.”
Naveen remained wicketless against MI and conceded 37 runs from his quota of four overs. He erred a few times in the penultimate over conceding 19 runs. Tim David hit him for two sixes in the over. He also bowled a no ball that went for boundary. However, Naveen ended up on the winning side as Mohsin Khan conceded just five runs while defending 11 runs in the final over.
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