The series of events which led to Virat Kohli's brawl with Gautam Gambhir: 3 things to know

A detailed explanation of the series of events that led to a full-blown argument between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in a hotly-contested fixture in Lucknow by 18 runs although the IPL 2023 tie was marred by ugly scenes both during and after the match. It was not a pleasant sight to see India's two World Cup-winning team members - Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir - nearly coming to blows once again highlighting the fallout between the two former teammates. Not only did it take the sheen off wonderful a low-scoring match in an otherwise record-high-scoring tournament but also painted a grim picture of the two teams.

After all that transpired, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir did not hold back. (Twitter)

Everything seemed to be going fine until the 17th over of the chase until things got blown out of proportion with Kohli, Amit Mishra, Naveen-Ul-Haq, Kyle Mayers and finally Gambhir making for an appalling viewing. As you wonder what, when and how the slugfest went down, we present a detailed explanation of the series of events that led to a full-blown argument between Kohli and Gambhir.

1 Gambhir 'shushes' RCB crowd and follows it with aggressive handshake with Kohli

Gautam Gambhir, who is the mentor of LSG celebrated his team's narrow win over RCB last month rather aggressively, gesturing toward the RCB fans by putting a finger on his lips to silence them. RCB came to the return fixture, at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, with a point to prove, and that reflected in their aggression on the field as they came out to defend 126.

Every wicket was celebrated with wild roars, fist pumps, and flying kisses aimed at the crowd. At several stages, Kohli even orchestrated the crowd like he usually does in international cricket, despite it being the opposition’s home ground. It was then that Kohli decided to give it back to Gambhir when he took a catch and brought out his own 'finger on the lips' celebration. The feud was underway.

2 What triggered Naveen-Ul-Haq vs Kohli

Things started going south in the fag over of LSG's chase, when Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq was at the crease. Kohli, pumped up at the fall of regular wickets and sensing blood, gestured Siraj to bowl bouncers at Naveen. Naveen saw it and came up to have a few words with Kohli, which was when the altercation began. Non-striker Amit Mishra and the umpires had to intervene and separate the two players. More words were exchanged, albeit from a distance, as Kohli moved towards his position at cover. From the non-striker’s end, Mishra seemed to request Kohli to calm down, which probably made the latter come up to him and have a conversation.

During the customary post-match handshakes between the two teams, tempers flared again. Kohli and Naveen exchanged words even as they moved ahead to shake the next player’s hand. This time Glenn Maxwell played the mediator, separating the two players. After the tensions seemed to have died down a bit, Kohli had an animated discussion with KL Rahul, the Lucknow captain. He seemed visibly annoyed at whatever had transpired, and one of his several hand motions during that conversation included the silencing gesture that Gambhir had made in Bangalore and then Kohli had repeated in Lucknow. Naveen passed by the duo during this conversation, and Rahul asked him to join in, possibly to sort things out. Naveen did not oblige.

This isn't the first time that Naveen has been engaged in such a confrontation. During a PSL match two years ago, Naveen got into Shahid Afridi's face in one of the league's biggest controversial moments.

3 Gambhir pulls Mayers away and lets it rip on Kohli

After the handshakes, Kyle Mayers was seen having a conversation with Kohli. This was cut short when Gambhir escorted Mayers away. Gambhir was then seen muttering something about Kohli and even tried to charge towards him. While he was stopped by a number of teammates, including Rahul, he went on to confront Kohli. Kohli and Gambhir were seen exchanging words and had to be separated by the two sets of players, including RCB captain Faf du Plessis. Kohli seemed to explain his side of things, but neither party was in any mood for amicability.