Fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq played for Afghanistan in their World Cup 2023 opener against Bangladesh on Saturday in Dharamsala. Not for his bowling, but Naveen made today’s headlines for being taunted and teased by the Indians fans in the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala.
There was a decent amount of crowd present at the Dharamsala stadium to attend this day game between Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Naveen-ul-Haq was teased multiple times by the Indian fans who chanted Virat Kohli’s name whenever the pacer came onto bowl and more so when he was fielding near the boundary.
A video has gone viral on social media in which Naveen-ul-Haq can be seen fielding at the boundary fence when he’s being teased by the Indian fans with the chants of “Kohli Kohli”.
Check out the video here in which Virat Kohli fans teased Naveen-ul-Haq in Dharamsala:
‘Kohli, Kohli’ chants at Dharamshala Stadium in front of Naveen Ul Haq. pic.twitter.com/GJfDOpZyVB
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 7, 2023
For the unversed, Naveen-ul-Haq and Virat Kohli had a serious tussle during the IPL 2023 when RCB played LSG in Lucknow. There were some serious stares and gestures from both the players, and it got more heated when LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir also had a go at Kohli.
Coming to the Bangladesh vs Afghanistan, Bangladesh made it a one-sided 6-wicket win and opened their account in the World Cup 2023. Mehidy Hasan Miraz continued his rise at the world stage. He picked 3 wickets, and so did Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh skipper; Miraz then also scored 57 runs in the chase of a small target of 156 runs.
Afghanistan only managed 155 runs as they collapsed from 112/2 to 155 all-out. Shakib and Miraz took three wickets each while Shoriful Islam took two wickets. Afghanistan started well with the ball, taking two wickets for 27 runs, but half-centuries from Miraz and Shanto took Bangladesh home safely.
Player of the match Mehidy Hasan Miraz said: “It’s a great moment for me, I’ve done a lot of hard work in the past. Credit to the team management because they believed in me. I was a bit cautious, the captain told me to bowl in the right areas. He told me to be consistent and to focus on my own performance so credit to the captain. I took it ball by ball, didn’t look at the runs. Wicket was turning a bit, I just tried to play straight. I’ve always batted at no.8 so a great moment for me to bat at the top of the order. They tried me at the top of the order in the last few matches and it’s a great moment for me.”
