New Delhi: When the Indian cricket team met Afghanistan at Arun Jaitley Stadium on October 11, Indian fans were more eager to watch Virat vs Naveen clash than the actual match itself.
Naveen was constantly getting trolled throughout the match before the Indian veteran, in a classic show of sportsmanship, decided to intervene and asked the fans not to discourage the young Afghan bowler, putting an end to a months-long feud between the two.
However, it seems like the Indian cricket fans have also decided to support the Afghani pacer, as in a video going viral, fans at Arun Jatiely Stadium can be seen cheering for him during his instrumental spell during Afghanistan’s match against the defending Champions England on Sunday.
The video was shared by the Lucknow Super Giants X (Formerly known as Twitter) page, the IPL franchise Naveen plays for. Check out the video below:
Delhi is cheering for Naveen. Yes, read that again! 👏👏👏pic.twitter.com/e8wyN4zxz7
— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) October 15, 2023
Virat seemingly was unimpressed by the crowd’s display of action and decided to step in himself to stop the unwelcomed chanting.
Afghanistan pulled a huge upset
Afghanistan winning moment. #AFGvsENG #ENGvAFG #Bazball #benstokes #curran #RashidKhan #MujeebUrRahman #Mujeeb #Gurbaz #IndiaVsPakistan #RohitSharma #EnglandCricket pic.twitter.com/C6SvplynH8
— Yunus Khan (@physitalyunus) October 16, 2023
Earlier, the Afghanistan cricket team on Sunday created history by defeating the defending champions England by 69 runs, scripting a massive upset to register only their second win in the ODI World Cup history, with the only other win coming in the 2015 World Cup Against Scotland side.
As it happened
England vs Afghanistan highlight match pic.twitter.com/soTv405A2S
— M A game YouTube channel (@Muhamma77515170) October 16, 2023
The English skipper, Jos Butler, won the toss and invited the Afghan team to bat first.
Afghanistan accepted the invitation with open arms as both the openers, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (80) and Ibrahim Zadran (28), gave a blistering start to their side and added 114 runs for the first wicket.
However, Afghanistan soon lost their footing and were quickly reduced to 122 for 3, the last match, half-centuriens captain Hashmatullah Sahidi (14) and Azmatullah Omarzai (19) tried to recover the innings a little, but Afghanistan was soon left struggling at 190 for 6.
Then the Afghani wicketkeeper Ikaram Alikhil (58) with his half-century, and the star spinners Rashid Khan (23) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (28), with their handy cameos, helped their team to put a challenging total of 284 on the board.
In reply, England was speculated to make easy work of the sub-par target set by the Afghani team on the batting-friendly wicket of Arun Jaitley Stadium, however, the underdogs had other plans in their mind.
Afghanistan started their defence in a dream manner by dismissing Jhonny Bairstow (2) cheaply in the second over itself. England soon lost Joe Root (11), reducing themselves to 33 for 2.
Harry Brook (66) and Dawid Malan (32) tried to revive the innings, but apart from them, there was no fightback from the English side, as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and finally were all out on 215, giving Afghanistan a 69 runs victory.
The infamous Afghan spin trio of Mujeeb, Rashid and Nabi were Afghanistan’s heroes, with 8 out of 10 wickets shared between the three.
Virat the peacemaker
This was not the first time Virat Kohli acted as a peacemaker for his fellow sportsperson, as during the 2019 World Cup during India’s match against Australia, Virat stepped in and urged the fans to stop booing Steve Smith and stop chanting cheater-cheater towards him.
Fans were trolling Steve Smith for his infamous sandpaper gate scandal against South Africa, for which he and David Warner were even temporarily suspended from the team.
