The match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) has become the talking point ever since Virat Kohli, Naveen-ul-Haq and Gautam Gambhir were involved in a brawl during and after the match. All the three involved were fined as well with Kohli and Gambhir losing 100% of their match fee while Naveen-ul-Haq was fined 50% of his match fee. However, it is learnt now that the match referee has unfairly sanctioned Kohli in the matter. Glenn Maxwell was privy to the entire incident and he has stated that the former RCB skipper didn't utter a word.
Let us see what actually happened:
The drama started in the 17th over of LSG's innings when Virat Kohli suggested Mohammed Siraj to bowl a bouncer at Naveen-ul-Haq. This is when Siraj cheekily asked Naveen, "Upar daalu ya niche." The Afghanistan cricketer seemingly took offence to this and asked Siraj to come and sit down ("Yaha aakar niche baith ja.").
At the end of the match, during the customary post-match handshakes, Naveen didn't look at Virat Kohli while shaking a hand to which the latter asked him to show sportsman spirit and shake hands properly. Naveen-ul-Haq didn't like this and started abusing Virat Kohli who was shocked over his reaction.
LSG opener Kyle Mayers then got in touch with Kohli to know what happened in the middle. When Virat started explaining him in a very friendly manner, Gautam Gambhir entered the scene and took Mayers away saying there is no need to speak to Virat Kohli. Gambhir was also not happy earlier while shaking hands with the umpires and was having an animated chat with them.
After all this, Gambhir barged aggressively towards Kohli thrice only to be stopped by players around him. Looking at the same, Virat Kohli asked others to let Gambhir come so that he can speak to him. The 34-year-old then tried to tell Gambhir that he hadn't uttered a word but the latter was not in a position to listen at all and kept saying, "Tu gaali nahi deta." (You never abuse?)
Glenn Maxwell was privy to the entire incident during all this period and he has stated that Kohli didn't even utter a single word. This is also the first time that match referee has added sanctions without talking to the player concerned.
Looking at the entire timeline of the incident, it seems that Gautam Gambhir's involvement blew up the matter unnecessarily and Virat Kohli was penalised unfairly by the match referee.
