The cricket fans all over the world were quite excited for the India-Afghanistan cricket match in the ongoing ICC ODI World Cup 2023, not because they expected Afghanistan to make any upset but because they wanted to see how Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq will behave after coming face to face in this match.
If you remember, Virat and Naveen had a brawl during the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants and after the match, the mentor of LSG Gautam Gambhir also had an ugly spat with Virat Kohli.
Yesterday, India played its second match of the ODI World Cup against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi, and both Virat and Naveen buried the past by shaking hands and hugging each other.
Ravi Shastri, the former Indian cricketer and former head coach of the Indian team who was doing commentary at that time was also happy with this new development as he stated, “It is part and parcel of sports. Let bygones be bygones and you got to move on with time. Time is a great healer. Sport teaches you to embrace a lot of things that may not go your way. It was great to see that and great to see it coming on the giant screen time and time again for the public to take notice of the fact that it is sportsmanship at the end of the day.”
He further added, “In the heat of the moment, they might have lost their cool, words might have been exchanged and other people might have got into the mix that happens in sports. But to see what happened today was very good. Six months down the line, they both realised that it could have been done in another way; let’s not take things to heart. If scores can be settled on the field for everyone to see, nothing like it.”
India won yesterday’s match by 8 wickets as it successfully chased the target of 273 runs in 15 overs with the help of the century knock of skipper Rohit Sharma (131 runs).
