Top 3 sledging incidents in the history of IPL

3. Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir

In IPL 2013, 30,000 fans at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium along with the entire world saw a glimpse of naked aggression between two Indian colossi; one at the fag end of his career, and the other who is beginning to script his name in the record books. Gambhir and Kohli are well known for their unfiltered vocal disputes on the field with opposition cricketers.

On 11 April 2013, RCB were chasing a target of 155 against KKR. The match was tilting towards RCB as their skipper was taking on the Knight Riders’ bowlers. On the first delivery of the 10th over by Lakshmipathy Balaji, looking for another boundary, Virat Kohli was caught by Eoin Morgan at the deep cover position.

The fielders converged towards Balaji to celebrate, including Gambhir who ran in from the point position in the circle. While Kohli started trudging back towards the dressing room, he heard some words from the KKR skipper, and with no delay replied with a few of his own. All eyes transferred from Morgan and went straight to the two Delhi lads who were charging at each other, not to shake hands, surely, but to have a severe go at one another.

Thankfully, as they were at some distance apart, Rajat Bhatia, the KKR all-rounder, intruded into their space and walled between them. The umpire Anil Chaudhary too quickly intervened to separate them. An infuriated Kohli hurled down some expletives – to Gautam or on the frustration of getting out, we can only assume – on his way to the dressing room. If not for some sanity among the players, we were about to witness an all Delhi Battle Royal; Kohli, Gambhir, Bhatia and even the umpire Anil Chaudhary, all hail from Delhi. Phew!