Bollywood star and wife of former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma, was at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Monday to cheer on her husband against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ‘Southern Derby’ of the IPL 2023. Before Anushka could cheer for Kohli and RCB, it was the star power of CSK captain MS Dhoni which overtook the stadium and Anushka was left in awe.
Dhoni only faced the one ball in the match but the roar at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium was deafening for the former India captain. Several images and videos of Anushka from the stadium went viral on social media.
In one such video, she was seen seating in the stands with RCB officials. She was bowled over by the crowd’s support for MS Dhoni when he came to bat. She was caught telling her fans, “They love him,” when Dhoni was marking his guard.
Crowd goes crazy as #MSDhoni_ comes to bat.
'____ ____ ___', says Anushka Sharma._ Jio cinema#CSKVSRCB #CSKvRCB #RCBVSCSK #RCBvCSK #Dhoni pic.twitter.com/yUFps5kxNh
— CricketCountry (@cricket_country) April 17, 2023
The clip was streamed just for a few seconds but the eagle-eyed fans were fast enough to lip-read what the Bollywood star was telling her friends. Soon after the clip went viral on social media, fans flooded the comment section with red hearts and fire emoticons.
“Loved by whole universe #MSDhoni,” a fan wrote. Another fan commented, “Moment of the day.”
However, soon after Anushka was left disappointed as her husband was dismissed for just 6 by CSK’s ‘Impact Player’ Akash Singh. Chasing a massive target of 227, RCB suffered early blows as they lost the wickets of Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror. Akash Singh dismissed Kohli in the first over, while Tushar Deshpande got the better of Lomror in the second.
Glenn Maxwell and captain Faf du Plessis handled RCB’s charge as they slammed CSK bowlers all around the ground while taking singles at regular intervals. The duo of Maxwell and captain Du Plessis brought up their 100-run partnership in just 48 balls.
In the last over, CSK pacer Matheesha Pathirana defended an equation of 19 runs with his perfect Yorkers and took the wicket of Suyash Prabhudessai to hand his team 8 run win over RCB.
“Will tell the boys to take this in stride and move on. Personally, I got stiff and lost some power. I’d have liked to have gone harder in the middle period. I tried but couldn't keep up,” Du Plessis said after the match.
(with ANI inputs)
