Watch: Virat Kohli's shoe-act triggers angry spat with Naveen Ul Haq, leads to ugly exchange with Gambhir

While the ugly Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir verbal spat took the sheen off Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) win over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2023 on Monday (May 1) and became the main point of attention for everyone, confusion remained as to where the entire drama started. 

It is known that Gambhir and Kohli, the two longstanding frenemies, indulged in yet another abusive exchange and had to be pulled away from each other after the game. But elusive is the information about what exactly were the two Indian cricketers engaging in a fight for. 

There was an indication that the matter related to Virat Kohli's separate verbal bout with LSG seamer Naveen-Ul-Haq but nothing was confirmed. The two cricketers were seen sharing a mouthful with each other while crossing paths and shaking hands after the game, and required timely intervention from players around them. 

Now it is believed that is exactly where things took ugly turns in an otherwise stale fixture of the IPL. In a separate clip that went under the radar, Kohli was seen engaging with cuss words against Naveen during the latter stages of LSG's unsuccessful run-chase and even seemingly showing his shoe at the batter. That aside, the Indian batting great had an argument even with senior Indian wristspinner Amit Mishra. 

What started the Kohli-Naveen ugly spat 

Close to the finish of the game with LSG eight wickets down and approaching an improbable equation in their chase of 127 on a turning pitch, Virat Kohli was seen gesturing hands and talking to Naveen. To which, the pacer responded in equal measure. 

WATCH: Kohli and Gambhir at it AGAIN! Duo engage in heated conversation post LSG vs RCB game

Kohli, seemingly not used to anyone responding to his jeering, perhaps felt miffed at the reaction of the opposition player and got more angry at him to such extent that he showed his shoe to him by the looks of it. Before the two players crossed the line, one saw standing umpire and the experienced Mishra intervene. 

That wasn't all, however, as Kohli had another verbal spat, apart from the infamous Gambhir one, where he had an argument even with Mishra during the closing stages of the game. 

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Gambhir, who was brewing with anger, had been seen taking Kyle Mayers away when the West Indies opener was having a word of exchange with Kohli and then had a mouthful of abuses to share with the ex RCB captain when after a brief interaction with LSG skipper KL Rahul he went near the opposition dugout.

It required the two modern-day giants intervention from the players and support staff members for things to not further escalate.