Virat Kohli Asked Crowd To Cheer For Hardik: Legendary India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is thoroughly impressed with Virat Kohli’s act of asking the Wankhede crowd to not boo Hardik Pandya and instead clap for their new captain.
On Thursday evening, even as his own team, RCB, was running into a horrendous defeat at the Wankhede Stadium, Kohli ensured that he managed to turn the Mumbai Indians fans who were against Hardik into supporting the new MI skipper.
Hardik Pandya had replaced Rohit Sharma as the Mumbai Indians skipper, ending Rohit’s reign of 11 seasons in which he marched MI to five IPL titles. This decision from the MI owners and management was met with severe criticism by the fans, and Hardik was the one who bore the brunt of it on the field by being met with loud boos, heckling, and slurs by the fans in the IPL 2024.
Virat Kohli, who himself had faced the boos at the Wankhede stadium a long time ago, stepped up for Hardik, who is his India teammate and the best pace-bowling all-rounder in the country.
As Hardik walked into bat, he was welcomed with a chorus of boos from the fans. Kohli expressed his disappointment with the crowd booing Hardik and asked them to clap for him. He also pointed to his jersey, gesturing that Hardik is an Indian player too.
The crowd quickly understood Kohli’s emotions and his plea: the boos promptly turned into cheers for Hardik. The cheers got louder as the MI captain blasted three sixes in his knock of 21*(6) and completed the chase of 197 runs with 27 balls left.
Virat Kohli Asked Crowd To Cheer For Hardik: Harbhajan Singh heaps praise on the RCB and India star
Speaking with Star Sports, Harbhajan Singh lavished praise on Kohli’s sportsmanship and the support he gave to Pandya. After the match, Kohli and Pandya shared a warm hug as well.
Harbhajan said,
“The way Virat Kohli supported Hardik Pandya and told the crowd not to boo Hardik & cheer for him, it is a sign of a Great player & a very very good sportsman”
RCB posted 196 on the board courtesy of half-centuries from Faf du Plessis, Rajat Patidar, and Dinesh Karthik, while Jasprit Bumrah took a sensational five-wicket haul. MI, though, didn’t seem to break a sweat in the chase and gunned it down in 15.3 overs via thunderous knocks from Ishan Kishan (69 off 34), Rohit Sharma (38 off 24), and Suryakumar Yadav (52 off 19).
MI now have two wins in a row, while RCB have lost four consecutive matches.
Check Out: Virat Kohli asked crowd to cheer for Hardik
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