Just below the media centre, there is a fan holding a sign which reads, “Today’s special: Mango shake, made by King Kohli”. Ever since a tense Monday night at the IPL in Lucknow at the start of May, when they clashed during the post-match handshakes, there has been an ongoing battle between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq: Naveen seemed to post a picture of mangoes every time that Kohli failed or Royal Challengers Bangalore lost during the second half of IPL 2023, and the Kotla crowd tonight at the World Cup did not let him forget it.

When Naveen walked out to bat in Afghanistan’s innings, the crowd responded to the PA announcer reading his name with chants of “Kohli, Kohli” and the same thing happened during the run chase when Naveen came on to bowl. Hashmatullah Shahidi, the Afghanistan captain, played up to it by bringing Naveen on as soon as Kohli walked out at No. 3 following Ishan Kishan’s dismissal.

But they have been playing things down just a little, exchanging a handshake and patting one another on the back during the latter stages of this run chase. Perhaps a closer game would have generated some more masala, but they have opted to cool down the spice.

“Crowd will chant for their home cricketers and that is what they did. It is his (Kohli’s) home ground. He is a nice guy, a good player and we shook hands,” Naveen told PTI after the game.

“It (what happened) was always in the ground, it was nothing outside the ground. People make it big. They need that stuff for their followers. He said ‘we are done with that and I said yes we are done with that’. We shook hands and hugged.”