Naveen-ul-Haq’s KL Rahul-like Celebration After Dismissing Rohit, Green Goes Viral

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has been making headlines since his altercation with Virat Kohli earlier this month. On Wednesday evening, he hogged the limelight again for his KL Rahul-like celebration after dismissing Mumbai Indian skipper Rohit Sharma early in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 Eliminator in Chennai. The right-arm quick put his fingers inside his ears and closed his eyes, just like LSG skipper Rahul does after scoring a century.

LIVE: LSG vs MI IPL 2023 Eliminator

The incident happened in the 4^th over of the Mumbai Indians innings. Rohit shimmied down the line to drive a length ball over cover. However, he didn’t get the elevation and holed it out straight to Ayush Badoni. Naveen thus provided the opening breakthrough to his team and instead of bringing out a jubilant celebration, the Afghan pacer decided to do it calmly like Rahul.

The Afghan pacer returned in the 11th over and cleaned up all-rounder Cameron Green who was cruising towards his fifty. Naveen-ul-Haq, Roghit He bowled an off-cutter on a fuller length outside off that beaten Green’s loose drive. The ball went through the gap between bat and pad and the off, knocking over the middle stump.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first against Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The MI skipper said off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen replaced left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya Singh in the playing eleven, with Tilak Varma also returning in place of Nehal Wadhera.

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“The boys are quite upbeat about it. We are here. It was a long journey with ups and downs, and because of that, we learnt a lot about our team as well. We are ready for this game,” Rohit said.

Lucknow skipper Krunal Pandya said he would have also liked to bat first.

“It has been an up-and-down season, but we have fought and never gave up. We have got really good match-winners,” said Krunal.

“Where we are, it’s been an entire team effort, it’s not one or two individuals. We would have batted as well but at the end of the day, you have to play good cricket. That’s what matters,” he added.

The winner of the Eliminator will play against defending champions Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday, while the losing team will be knocked out of the tournament.

(With Agency Inputs)