Gautam Gambhir Asked To Reciprocate To 'Kohli' Chants after LSG's Win

image-lhnai7zjGautam Gambhir is mentoring LSG in IPL 2023 (Instagram/gautamgambhir55)

On Saturday, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) crushed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by a massive margin of 7 wickets. The Krunal Pandya-led side thumped the Orange Army at home keeping their playoff hopes well and truly alive. But it was not without any drama.  A myriad of events unfolded during this fixture. It all started off with the contentious no-ball decision going against the home side which triggered a massive backlash from the angry crowd in the stands. 

The SRH team management was visibly upset with this decision as well as Heinrich Klassen went on to slam the on field umpire for the dubious decision for which he was later fined 10% of his match fees. 

With the home crowd going wild and tensions bowling over, LSG team staff had to abandon their fragile dugout and took to the field to evade objects being thrown at them. The match officials and the police later intervened to diffuse the heated situation resulting in a needless delay in the game. 

Amidst all this chaos, crowd broke into "Kohli" chants, targeting LSG and mentor Gautam Gambhir following his hostile altercation with Virat Kohli on May 1. 

At first, Gambhir decided to take no note of the crowd's gesture. Despite being such an energy driven man, Gambhir held a stable head on his shoulders and appeared to pretend as if nothing has happened. 

But moments before LSG's win in Hyderabad, bowling coach Morne Morkel called Gambhir from behind as they were seated in the dug out and indicated him to break into a celebration and give it back to the SRH crowd after those "Kohli" shouts. In response, Gambhir along with Naveen-ul-Haq, who was involved in a spat with Kohli burst into laughter.

A brain fade move from Markram coupled with some scintillating strokeplay from Nicholas Pooran who clobbered 44* off 13 sealed the deal for the Men in Blue. 

Following their win on Saturday, LSG have consolidated their position in the points table and have a strong chance of making it to the playoffs. They will host a resurgent MI side in their next crucial encounter on May 16.