Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday saw three over-enthusiastic fans run into the ground to touch Virat Kohli’s feet. In what was a major security lapse despite the presence of many personnel, the intrusion happened in the 18th over just before lunch break, when Kohli was fielding at cover. Immediately, the three fans were taken away from the field by more than 20 security persons running in from all quarters.
Previously, on day one, a similar incident happened when a fan touched Kohli’s feet, and was taken away by the security officials, with the batting stalwart requesting for the intruder to be not dealt with harshly.
Delhi’s win by an innings and 19 runs over Railways inside three days also marked Kohli’s return to the Ranji Trophy after more than 12 years. The moment gained a lot of attention as there was huge crowd coming to the stadium for the first two days.
But Kohli’s highly-anticipated return to the Ranji Trophy wasn’t on the desired lines as he was dismissed for just six runs off 15 balls when pacer Himanshu Sangwan sent his off-stump on a cartwheel ride.
After Delhi registered the thumping win over Railways, Kohli posed for photographs with ground and security staff of the stadium, before posing for pictures with members of both teams inside the dressing room.
Off-spinner Shivam Sharma, who took a superb 5-33 to set up Delhi’s win on day three, revealed the intruders had requested to Kohli that they should not be beaten up by the security personnel.
“This is Virat’s craze, but at the same time it was not right for them to run inside the ground. No, Virat bhaiya didn’t say anything specific, but yes, anything could have happened if they brought anything with them. Those three people had just requested to Virat that they should not be beaten up. So, those three people were just taken away and nothing was done to them,” he said to reporters after the match ended.
Kohli will be next seen in action for the Indian team in their upcoming ODI series against England, starting on February 6 in Nagpur, followed by matches in Cuttack and Ahmedabad. It is followed by the ICC Champions Trophy starting on February 19, with India’s matches against Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand to happen in Dubai.
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