IPL 2023: Mumbai Indians players take a dig at Naveen-ul-Haq following victory over LSG in Eliminator

Five-time champions Mumbai Indians were at their very best in the Eliminator, beating Lucknow Super Giants by 81 runs. Notably, batting first, the Rohit Sharma-led side posted 182 runs on board and in return, Lucknow posted only 101 runs. MI’s bowling attack absolutely rattled the Krunal Pandya-led side and that will boost their confidence ahead of Qualifier 2 where they take on Gujarat Titans.

Meanwhile, after the completion of the match, MI pacer Sandeep Warrier posted a photo trolling Naveen-Ul-Haq for his previous comments on Virat Kohli. The Afghanistan pacer took multiple digs at the former India skipper and also posted images of having mangoes when Kohli was struggling in the middle against Mumbai Indians on May 9.

Recreating that, Sandeep Warrier posted a photo alongside Vishnu Vinod and Kumar Karthikeya after LSG’s exit from the tournament, where the three were posing as Mahatma Gandhi's three monkeys, and had kept three mangoes on the table. Even though the cricketer later deleted the post but the screenshot of the same went viral on various social media platforms as Virat Kohli fans showed a lot of support for Sandeep and his gang. 

leisha@katyxkohli17

Virat Kohli fanboys owned Naveen ul haq "Sweet Mangoes" 😭

12:24 AM · May 25, 2023

8.4K965

Notably, the rivalry between Naveen and Kohli started on May 1, 2023, when LSG hosted RCB at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. Towards the fag end of the match, the 34-year-old was spotted having a heated argument with Naveen as umpires tried to stop them in the middle. However, it accelerated after the match as LSG’s mentor, Gautam Gambhir too got involved in it. Gambhir and Kohli were eventually fined 100% of their match fees while Naveen was asked to pay 50% of his match fees.

Interestingly, the 23-year-old has taken multiple digs at Kohli and on RCB after that incident. After the three-time finalists lost to Gujarat Titans (May 21) and got eliminated from the competition, Naveen uploaded a meme on his Instagram story and also tried to humiliate the franchise on many occasions. However, that didn’t impact his performance on the pitch as the pacer picked up four wickets for LSG against MI in the Eliminator but that eventually went in vain as Mumbai were far superior to Lucknow on May 24.