Matthew Hayden is not impressed with Virat Kohli’s constant involvement with the umpires while Royal Challengers Bengaluru were fielding during their IPL 2024 match against Chennai Super Kings at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. Kohli, actively involved as always, kept having a word with the officials more than the captain Faf du Plessis himself, which did not go well with the former Australia opener, who expressed his disappointment with the act on air.
The incident took place in the 12th over of CSK’s chase. As the umpires came together to chat, Kohli walked up to the two and said something in their ears that caught Hayden’s attention. Previously as well, Kohli kept having a word or two with the umpires, but this time around, Hayden addressed it, saying it’s not Kohli’s job or responsibility to cause these many ‘interjections’.
“There’s way too much interjection from Virat Kohli. He is not the captain and he should not be in those conversations with the umpire,” Hayden said on commentary.
Kohli’s emotions were at an all-time high during Sunday’s blockbuster clash. He was mouthing words to himself while batting, and every time he connected a boundary, he either punched the air or his bat in excitement. But if you thought Kohli’s emotions were at their peak while batting, wait till you saw him and his tactics on the field. Kohli celebrated each wicket as if they were his own, and after three years, shades of Virat the captain, were on full display.
Watch Kohli having a word with the umpires below:
Virat Kohli on an emotional roller-coaster
Kohli once again sprung into action on the penultimate over when an overthrow from the fielder allowed MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to sneak a second run. He immediately went up to the umpire even as du Plessis shook his head in disbelief from a distance. It was almost as if Faf was just the acting captain, and Kohli had taken over as the man in charge for the evening.
Kohli was also in the thick of things when Yash Dayal bowled a full toss to Dhoni in the first ball of the final over of the match, in which CSK needed 17 to win. Kohli, not happy at all, came running from long-on and gave Dayal an earful. But at the same time, Kohli passed an important piece of advice when he told the left-arm quick to bowl the slower one and not the yorker. And as it turned out, Kohli’s advice was gold dust as Dhoni perished the very next ball, off the slower one, and it also kept Jadeja quiet when CSK needed a repeat of last year’s IPL finish – 10 off two balls.
And when Jadeja missed connected on the last ball, an animated Kohli went berserk near the boundary line. This version of him had long gone off-radar, but on the big match evening, the world witnessed the return of Kohli, who vowed to give England ’60 overs of hell’. Rest assured, RCB would want to play three more matches and end RCB’s agonising wait to lift the IPL title. Till then, Kohli won’t rest. He will come at the opposition hard, wild and fast.
