During the IPL 2020 match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on October 28, Virat Kohli’s ultra-competitive gesture came out yet again. Keen to get the important wicket of Suryakumar Yadav, he fielded the ball at cover and walked up to the batsman. This time, Kohli tried to shake Surya’s composure by attempting to sledge him. But Surya just gave RCB captain a stare back without uttering a single word.
A video clip of the incident soon went viral on social media as it happened just a day after Surya’s red-hot form in domestic and List-A cricket was once again ignored by Team India selectors, who had picked the squads for Australia tour.
Now, opening up on the famous stare-off for the first time, Surya has revealed that Kohli was impressed with his knock and even encouraged him after the game.
“It was in the heat of the moment, there was nothing going on between me and him from before that we brought into that game. Even I was surprised with how that incident got highlighted after the game. But it was really nice to have that game against him,” Surya told Sports Tak.
“I have always seen him (Virat Kohli) as energetic in every game it wasn’t like that game against MI was an exception. Even when he plays for Team India or against any team in the IPL, his aggression and energy are always spot on. It was an important game for RCB as well because they also had the chance to go into top-2 if they had won.
“After the match, he was just normal. He said, ‘well played’ to everybody afterwards. It was just in that moment (his staring incident with Virat Kohli). He also knew at that situation who was the key player in the opposition.”
Surya finished the 165-run chase on 79 not out after facing 43 balls with the help of 3 sixes and 10 fours as MI won the match by five wickets.
