Virat Kohli left Sunil Narine confused as he ‘got ready’ to bowl the opening over in KKR vs RCB, and then taunted the all-rounder with Undertaker’s usual move.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s star batter Virat Kohli is enjoying a terrific outing with the bat, even as the side has been at the wrong end of the results on six of the seven occasions at the Indian Premier League so far. Kohli, with 361 runs in seven innings, is at the top of the Orange Cap list, and on Sunday, it seemed the RCB would take a punt on Kohli with the ball, too, as a rather hilarious moment was captured by the broadcast cameras before the start of the game.
Virat Kohli taunted Sunil Narine with Undertaker’s trademark move.
As the players took the field at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Kohli handed his cap to one of the on-field umpires and took the ball, seemingly giving the impression that he would start the proceedings for the RCB with the ball. Naturally, the fans at the stadium began to cheer loudly, and Kohli, too, continued in his act by doing the classic Undertaker ‘neck-slice’ move as he pointed towards Sunil Narine, the KKR opener.
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Narine has been key to Kolkata Knight Riders’ success in IPL 2024. The West Indies all-rounder has been opening the batting for them, and has been in red hot form. He is currently KKR’s highest run-scorer and is fifth in the Orange Cap race with 286 runs in seven matches. Against RCB, however, he failed to fire, getting dismissed for only 10 runs off 15 balls. Much of the credit for Narine’s wicket goes to Virat Kohli as well, whose catch affected the dismissal.
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As Kohli did the move points towards Narine, even the commentator responded, “Kohli told him that I am coming with the ball. Just like Pushpa-style.”
Kohli also walked up to Narine, and held a brief conversation with him. RCB had a clear game plan against Narine. They either directed their deliveries right at him, or far away from him, limiting the West Indian batter as he was eventually dismissed for 10 off 15 deliveries.
Here is the video:
Narine fell to Yash Dayal in the sixth over. After a barrage of yorkers, Narine received a slow delivery, wide of off, and went for the lofted drive. He got the ball off the toe end of his bat, and it went to Kohli at long-off for a simple catch.
RCB opted to bowl
RCB captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and opted to field. The match had plenty of drama during the toss, too. When the cameraman zoomed towards the coin, Du Plessis let out a cheeky smile in response to the ‘toss-tampering’ theories, which did the round on social media following the game between RCB and the Mumbai Indians earlier this month.
Hardik Pandya had tossed the coin over his head, causing it to land behind everyone. Match referee Javagal Srinath had to go and retrieve the coin, which led to rumours of tampering. Du Plessis was also seen discussing the incident with Pat Cummins during a match against SRH. Since then, the broadcasters have been zooming into the coin during the toss.
