The Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Kolkata Knight Riders clash at the IPL 2024 had two men, who have been known to share a bit of history, on the opposite side – Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir. The last time the duo faced each other at the IPL 2023, it made for one of the lasting images in Indian cricket. Last year, Gambhir was associated with Lucknow Super Giants and after a match against the RCB, had a heated on-field argument with Virat Kohli. Both of them were heavily fined for that incident. That was not the first on-field altercation between the two.
However, what happened during the RCB vs KKR game on Friday, was quite the opposite. Gautam Gambhir approached Virat Kohli and hugged the RCB star during a strategic time-out.
Our favourite strategic timeout ever #IPLonJioCinema #RCBvKKR #TATAIPL #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/A50VPhD6RI
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) March 29, 2024
MOMENT OF THE DAY…!!!
Gautam Gambhir went to Virat Kohli and congratulated him for his fifty.pic.twitter.com/CARSE7gcvf
— Virat Kohli Fan Club (@Trend_VKohli) March 29, 2024
: JioCinema pic.twitter.com/Fh3QZHVwFP
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 29, 2024
MOMENT OF THE DAY…!!!
Gautam Gambhir went to Virat Kohli and congratulated him for his fifty. pic.twitter.com/PTtL4sdY1u
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 29, 2024
Ahead of the match, IPL’s official broadcasters shared an old video of Gambhir where he cane bee seen delivering some interesting observations on RCB.
“One team which I wanted to beat every time, probably even in my dreams was RCB. Probably the second-most high profile team, flamboyant team with the owner and probably the squad – Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers. Honestly not won anything, still thought they won everything. That kind of attitude. I can’t take that. Probably the three best wins that KKR ever had was against RCB,” Gautam Gambhir says in the video.
“One thing that I want in my cricket career is go on the field and beat RCB.”
Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) allrounder Andre Russell showered praise on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and said that they have “great matchwinners” in their squad.
Speaking in the pre-match press conference, Russell said that KKR won’t be taking RCB for granted as they can take away any game. The Caribbean allrounder added that the Bengaluru-based franchise have good bowling unit.
“My mindset is very clear, especially coming after a win and getting some runs as well. [But] I am not going to take anything for granted. RCB is an amazing team and they have some great matchwinners, who can take the game away from us. They have a good bowling unit as well. So I hope that if I face five, six, seven, eight balls in the backend, I make the best use of it. But I would love the other batters to come to the party tomorrow and at least get some time in the middle,” Russell was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.