Kohli gives death stare to Ganguly moments before RCB’s win, DC director ignores handshake

The Virat Kohli-Sourav Ganguly episode that shook world cricket more than a year back is secret to none. The entire row had started after Kohli was removed from captaincy in ODI cricket.

Kohli had stepped down from the T20I leadership position in 2021 before there was a war of words targetted at each other via media interactions and eventually ended with the former relinquishing his captaincy role in Tests as well in January 2022.

It has been over 14 months now, and two have not been on good terms since then, as evident from not one but two incidents during the IPL 2023 match between RCB and Delhi Capitals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

Both incidents went viral on social media after the match where Kohli was named the Player of the Match for his record half-century knock. Well, it seemed only fitting given the scenario and the videos that went viral, to speak in terms of ardent fans of the former India skipper, it was “karma”.

The first video was from the 18th over of the Delhi’s chase of 175. In the third ball of that over, Kohli had taken a wonderful catch at long-on to dismiss Aman Hakim Khan for 18 off 10. The equation was reduced to 47 required off the final 15 balls with one wicket in hand.

As Kohli was walking his way back to his fielding position near the boundary rope, he gave a death stare to Ganguly, director of cricket at Delhi Capitals, who was seated at the dugout.

Delhi stretched the match to the last over, but eventually were restricted to 151 for nine, hence losing by 23 runs. It was Delhi’s fifth consecutive defeat in the ongoing IPL 2023, making them the only team yet to open their account in the tournament.

After the match, the players queued up to shake hands with DC players and management congratulating their RCB counterparts on the win. However, in a video that also went viral on social media, Ganguly spotted jumping the queue to avoid having a handshake with Kohli, who had by then been spotted chatting with Ricky Ponting, head coach of Delhi, who was standing ahead of the former BCCI president.

It was Kohli’s first Player of the Match award this season, which he recieved on his third half-century knock this season. He has been in sublime form in IPL 2023, especially in the Chinnaswamy conditions.