Virat Kohli responded to KL Rahul's Kantara celebration in a funny manner after his team Royal Challengers Bengaluru registered a six-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in their IPL 2025 match at Arun Jaitely Stadium on Sunday. Notably, DC had defeated RCB on the latter's home ground - M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru - on April 10. Leading DC to victory in the game, wicketkeeper-batter Rahul had hogged limelight for the celebration he did after hitting the winning runs. It was a celebration inspired by the movie 'Kantara', he later revealed in a video. Kantara is a 2022 Kannada movie starring Rishabh Shetty, Sapthami Gowda and Achyuth Kumar.
Being a Karnataka player, KL has played bulk of his domestic cricket at M Chinnnaswammy Stadium and even played two IPL seasons for RCB, in 2013 and 2016.
After playing a crucial role in DC's win over RCB at Bengaluru, KL, seen as a reserved and calm personality on the field, was extremely animated, thumping his chest and pointing towards the ground and at his jersey as if saying that it (M Chinnaswammy Stadium) is his. He was also seen tapping his bat on the ground.
Kohli, who himself hails from Delhi and represents the state in domestic cricket, recreated the celebration at Arun Jaitely Stadium after RCB beat DC on Sunday. However, the ex-RCB captain did it only to tease Rahul, who also ended up laughing over Kohli's act.
Watch it here:
RCB clinched the top spot in the IPL 2025 points table with the win over DC at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Chasing 163 for the win, Krunal Pandya slammed a 47-ball 73 not out as RCB achieved the target with nine balls to spare. Virat Kohli also hit his sixth half-century of the season to claim the Orange Cap. He scored 51 off 47 balls to continue his red-hot form with the bat. Axar Patel returned figures of 2 for 19 in his quota of four overs but it went in vain.
In batting, for DC, KL Rahul top-scored with a 39-ball 41 but the side lost wickets at regular intervals before Tristan Stubbs' 18-ball 34 lifted them to a competitive total of 162 for 8.
Bhuveshwar Kumar (3/33) and Josh Hazlewood (2/36) snapped five wicekts among them, while Krunal Pandya (1/28) and Yash Dayal (1/42) accounted for one wicket each.