On Monday night at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 18 runs in a low-scoring encounter of the IPL 2023. In a match that was briefly disrupted by rain, RCB batted first and scored 126/9 in 20 overs. Skipper Faf du Plessis was the top scorer for RCB with 44, and his opening partner Virat Kohli contributed 31, putting on 62 runs in nine overs.
RCB bowlers fire on all cylinders
After the innings break, RCB's bowlers fired on all cylinders and bowled out LSG for 108 in 19.5 overs on a pitch that was sluggish and made life difficult for batsmen. Unfortunately, LSG skipper KL Rahul was injured during fielding and came on to bat only after the fall of nine wickets, and his team needing 24 off 8 balls, which did not help their cause. Spinner Karn Sharma and paceman Josh Hazlewood were the standout bowlers for RCB, taking 2/20 and 2/15, respectively.
Kumble voices his opinion on ugly spat
Following the match, some heated exchanges between Kohli and former India opener Gautam Gambhir, who is now the mentor of the LSG squad, took place. However, JioCinema IPL expert Anil Kumble was not impressed by this and weighed in on the matter.
"A lot of emotion goes in but you don't want to be displaying those emotions here. This is important, you need to have a conversation. But this is something that's unacceptable."
"No matter what, you have to respect the opposition and the game. Once a game is over, you have to shake hands and tip your hat off, not to the player but to the game because that's something you need to respect. I don't know what was spoken, some things may have been personal and you don't want that on the cricket field. But with Gautam and Virat and the players involved, it wasn't the nicest thing to see," he added.
