IPL 2023: Naveen-ul-Haq posts cryptic Instagram story after Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore are out of playoff race

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) needed a win in their final league match against defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) to make it to the IPL 2023 playoffs, but Shubman Gill’s brilliant century knocked them out of the playoff race. On the other hand, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) sealed their place in the playoffs with a thrilling one-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday.

There is no love lost between Afghanistan and LSG pacer Naveen-ul-Haq and RCB batsman Virat Kohli after their well-documented fight earlier this season. On Sunday, Naveen posted a ‘secret’ Instagram story after Kohli’s century went in vain as GT emerged victorious by six wickets. Naveen’s post soon went viral on social media as fans clearly understood that the fast bowler was poking fun at Kohli and RCB.

See Naveen-ul-Haq’s Instagram story here…

Naveen ul Haq posted this video on his Instagram after RCB lost the match#RCBvsGT pic.twitter.com/FCaF41IMnM

— James of Shorts (@Warlock_Shabby) May 21, 2023

Kohli and Naveen were involved in a huge fight after their IPL 2023 league match in Lucknow, which RCB won. After the same match, the RCB batsman got into another fight with LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir. Kohli and Gambhir were fined 100 per cent of their match fees while Naveen was fined 50 per cent of his match fee.

LSG teams have been regularly taunted with ‘Kohli, Kohli’ chants wherever they have played since them. Naveen was also seen pacifying the crowd at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata during his last match against KKR. The incident came to light during the second over of KKR’s innings, when English batsman Jason Roy hit a flurry of boundaries against the Afghan pacer. The crowd, clearly supporting Kohli, ran into the stadium with chants of “Kohli, Kohli”.

In response to thunderous applause, Naveen-ul-Haq put a finger to his lips, signaling silence to the crowd. Despite his attempt to pacify the ruckus, the home crowd of Kolkata Knight Riders continued to chant Kohli undeterred by his gesture.

It is worth noting that this exchange is not the first of its kind. Lucknow Super Giants mentor Gautam Gambhir had earlier made a similar gesture during a match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Meanwhile, RCB skipper Faf du Plessis expressed his disappointment after failing to make it to the playoff stage. “Obviously very disappointing. We got a really strong team tonight, great innings from Shuman Gill. There was a lot of catching in the second innings. I thought 195-200 is a good score. We needed that wicket of Shubman,” du Plessis said in the post-match presentation.

“From a batting point of view, our top four guys contributed really well… We lost a few runs consistently throughout the season, especially towards the end of the innings. Maybe we didn’t get as many wickets in the middle (overs) as we wanted. We need a good middle order, and make sure we finish the game. Last season it was DK, but this season it was not supposed to happen,” he said.