Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) mentor Gautam Gambhir were involved in an ugly fight after their IPL 2023 match at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Monday. Both Kohli and Gambhir were fined 100 per cent of their match fees for Level 2 breach of IPL’s Code of Conduct and the former RCB captain then took a dig at his former Delhi teammate in an RCB dressing room video as well.

In video from inside the dressing room shared by RCB team on their social media accounts, Kohli is seen taking an apparent dig at Gambhir after the match. “If you can give it, you got to take it. Otherwise don’t give it,” Kohli is heard saying on the dressing room video.

The dig was an apparent reference to Gambhir blowing a kiss towards the Bengaluru after a nail-biting one-wicket win over RCB earlier in the IPL 2023 season. While the players were shaking hands after the game, there seemed to be words exchanged between LSG bowler Naveen-ul-Haq and Kohli. This was followed by Gambhir pulling away his side’s opening batter Kyle Mayers from a chat with Kohli.

All hell broke lose after that as Gambhir was seen approaching Kohli aggressively with his players, including the injured captain KL Rahul and Amit Mishra, restraining him. With the two facing off, Kohli was seen attempting to pacify Gambhir but rather than cooling off, the matter started to boil over before Amit Mishra stepped in and separated the duo.

Kohli had seemed extra animated throughout the fielding innings as RCB successfully defended 126 in an away match that had more crowd support for the visitors than the hosts. He was seen gesturing to the crowd after taking a catch to dismiss Krunal Pandya, possibly in response to Gambhir’s gestures in the last match between the two side in Bengaluru which LSG won by 1 wicket.

Kohli went on to add that it was a really important win for the RCB team on the ‘road’. “It is a really important win on the road for us. The fact that we got more support than the home team was a really unbelievable feeling. It tells you all about how much we are liked as a team and how much the fans like us,” Kohli said after the match in the RCB video.

“It is a really sweet win. It feels great for many reason but above all of them the character we showed to defend a small total, it was really special,” Kohli added.

RCB captain Faf du Plessis was pleased to see the ‘aggressive’ Kohli pumping up the crowd in Lucknow. “It is the best version of Virat, to see him pumped up, that’s when he is at his best. It is awesome to be a part of it, my job is to keep things calm of the field which I thought we did really well,” Du Plessis said after the game.