Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) star Venkatesh Iyer has opened up about breaking Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) talisman Virat Kohli's wife Anushka Sharma’s heart.
Virat Kohli and his wife, Anushka Sharma, were in disbelief after KKR's Venkatesh Iyer took a stunning catch to end the RCB superstar's knock at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium this week.
With Royal Challengers Bangalore chasing 201 to win the tie, stand-in skipper Virat Kohli took charge as he began anchoring the hosts' innings.
As Virat Kohli stamped his authority on Varun Chakaravarthy, with the spinner allowing the opponents to score 12 runs in the 12th over, KKR captain Nitish Rana decided to shake things up by introducing Andre Russell into the attack.
To everyone's surprise, the West Indian produced the goods by grabbing the wicket of Virat Kohli but not before Venkatesh Iyer took an absolute blinder to leave the former India captain shell-shocked and Anushka Sharma in disbelief.
Speaking about the incident, Venkatesh Iyer said that Virat Kohli was well set, and it was important for KKR to send him back into the hut.
Venkatesh Iyer elaborated that he was happy with his effort in the outfield.
“I am extremely happy to be back on the field. I haven't fielded in a while now – it has been almost 5-6 months that I have taken to the field for fielding – and that too in a high-pressure situation. I am lucky that the catch was very flat so I didn’t have a lot of thoughts and it stuck in my hand. I'm extremely happy that I took the catch because Virat Kohli was well set and that catch at that very moment was a very game-changing moment for us. Glad I took it,” Venkatesh Iyer said.
It wasn't the only incident related to Virat Kohli that became the talk of the town on social media during the match against KKR.
Virat Kohli's fit of sulk in the match against KKR too went viral on social media.
The episode happened earlier this week when England and KKR opener Jason Roy smashed four consecutive sixes off the bowling of Shahbaz Ahmed in the sixth over at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
With Jason Roy taking Shahbaz Ahmed to the cleaners, Virat Kohli appeared upset with his colleague as he felt the spin bowler could have altered his line and length to prevent the Englishman from clobbering him over the park.
As Jason Roy continued his assault on the RCB bowler, Virat Kohli was seen sulking over the underwhelming performance of Shahbaz Ahmed and looked visibly frustrated when the over ended.
Subsequently, Virat Kohli's reaction began trending on Twitter, with millions of his fans posting their opinion about his on-field antics.
Also, Virat Kohli faced social media mockery after he failed to lead his side to victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Virat Kohli's RCB is in fifth place on the table behind Rajasthan Royals (RR), Gujarat Titans (GT), and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which have 10 points each. Lucknow Super Giants are fourth with eight.
While some called him “shameless”, others alleged he was only concerned about personal milestones and not keen to lead his side to victory against opposition teams in the cash-rich league.
Some even posted memes to have fun at Virat Kohli's expense.
With RCB needing 201 to win the contest, Virat Kohli smacked a majestic 54 off 37 balls but failed to take his side over the finishing line.
Though Virat Kohli couldn't secure two points for his team, he did accomplish a major milestone in the clash.
En route to his 54 against KKR, Virat Kohli became the first batter to reach the 3,000 run mark at a single stadium in T20s. Overall the 34-year-old has made 3,015 runs in 92 knocks at Bengaluru's iconic M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Right behind the Delhi-born cricketer in the last are ex-Bangladesh skippers Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim.
In 121 innings, Mushfiqur Rahim has collected 2,989 runs at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, and Mahmudullah has accrued 2,813 runs in 130 knocks at the same ground.
England's Alex Hales and Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal occupy the fourth and the fifth spots on the list. While the Englishman has made 2,749 runs in 90 innings in the shortest format in Trent Bridge, the Bangladeshi has completed 2,706 runs in Mirpur.
After RCB's loss to KKR, Virat Kohli slammed his team's display. The talismanic batter said that his side “deserved to lose”.
“To be honest, we handed over the game to them,” Virat Kohli told Star Sports after RCB's loss. “We deserved to lose because we weren't professional enough in the field. The bowlers hit decent areas, but we didn't hold on to our chances. That's what you call a freebie in T20 cricket and we literally handed them a victory, which for me is not ideal because we take pride in the way we play and tonight we weren't up to standard and something we are not shy to admit.”
“With the bat, we set ourselves up really well and then [there were] so many soft dismissals,” Virat Kohli added. “Balls which are not wicket-taking balls but we ended up hitting it to fielders about four-five times in the innings. These are some of the soft plays in cricket which you want to avoid as a team. So when you do six-seven of those on a night, obviously you are going to be on the losing side.
“Even after losing wickets as well, one partnership brought us back in the game. We were one more partnership away from getting close to chasing that [target] down. We just need to identify things that did not go right tonight and not give soft plays to the opposition.”
Virat Kohli is currently the second-highest run-getter in IPL 2023. In eight games, he has scored 333 runs with five centuries. His RCB captain Faf du Plessis, who has 422 runs to his name in an equal number of matches, is ahead of him.
But the one major difference between the two players is their strike rate. While Virat Kohli has made his runs at 142.31, the South African has a strike rate of 167.46.
Follow Us
Subscribe