Kolkata Knight Riders’ match against Mumbai Indians on Sunday was marred by an on-field altercation between two players hailing from Delhi. This prompted KKR skipper Nitish Rana to lose his temper and allegedly hurl abuses at Hrithik Shokeen, who had managed to dismiss the former in the 9th over of the match. The visuals of Rana losing his cool and allegedly hurling abuses at Shokeen in the presence of 19,000 underprivileged girls, who were specially invited by Nita Ambani to watch the game, did not go down well with cricket fans. Many fans felt that Shloka Mehta’s mother-in-law wasn’t pleased with Nitish Rana’s outbursts.
In the 9th over of the KKR innings, Rana tried to hit Shokeen over long-on but ended up giving a catch to substitute Ramandeep Singh at the boundary. Elated by the wicket, Shokeen began to celebrate and was seen giving Rana a send-off by pointing toward the dugout. This evoked an angry response from Shokeen’s Delhi teammate in domestic cricket.
Rana allegedly hurled abuses at Shokeen, leaving everyone in the stadium stunned.
User Sahil Malhotra wrote on Twitter, “Not surprised to see this between Nitish Rana and Hrithik Shokeen. They have a history. Don’t talk in the dressing room. It all started in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Both weren’t talking while batting in Ranji too. Rana is a senior player and Shokeen needs to ZIP UP!”
Another user, Roshan Rai, wrote, “Nita Ambani is not happy with Nitish Rana’s cussing , this was MI’s ESA day and she had invited thousands of underprivileged girls to watch the match. Nitish Rana should not have lost his cool, he is the skipper, not a random player. #MIvsKKR.”
Many other users highlighted the Delhi connection by reminding how Virat Kohli too was known for his on-field outbursts. User Yash felt that Rana was a humble player and Shokeen must have provoked him to indulge in such outbursts.
Incidentally, Twitter was forced to take down all the videos of Rana’s outbursts aimed at Shokeen as it said that the video had been ‘withheld in response to a report from the copyright holder.’
Many fans targeted Shah Rukh Khan’s KKR for their Rana’s action but others were quick to defend KKR saying that it was unfair to blame the franchise for the on-field behaviour of an individual.