Tilak Varma has faced flak for his on-field altercation with Mumbai Indians teammate Naman Dhir during MI's encounter against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Raipur on Sunday.
MI lost a closely fought match on the very last ball and were officially eliminated from playoff contention in IPL 2026. The Mumbai Indians have just 3 wins from 11 matches and can only play party-pooper in their remaining matches.
RCB's decision to bowl first paid dividends as Bhuvneshwar Kumar ran through the MI batting line-up like a hot knife through butter. He took three wickets in the powerplay, including Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav in consecutive deliveries.
Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma held steady through the middle overs, but were both dismissed before they could do any further damage. Bhuvneshwar ended with a 4-wicket haul, and the Mumbai Indians set RCB a target of 167.
RCB ran into problems of their own during the chase. Deepak Chahar removed Virat Kohli for a first-ball duck and got Devdutt Padikkal out as well. Corbin Bosch had Rajat Patidar caught off the first ball he bowled to have RCB three down in the powerplay as well.
Krunal Pandya and Jacob Bethell had a half-century partnership, which was also broken by Bosch. Jitesh Sharma played a quick cameo before both he and Tim David got out to Bosch on successive deliveries.
Pandya then took it upon himself to go after the bowlers - particularly, AM Ghazanfar. Krunal survived a dropped chance in the 18th over and hit two sixes before finally getting out.
Jasprit Bumrah set up the match perfectly in the 19th over, but it all came undone in the last. A spate of wides and a no-ball brought RCB's equation from 15 runs in 6 balls to 9 runs in 3 balls. Bhuvneshwar Kumar once again stepped up with a first-ball six. There was more drama with RCB needing 2 off the last ball and Rasikh Dar scampering home.
The Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir incident
The incident took place in the 18th over of RCB's chase. Krunal Pandya hit a delivery from AM Ghazanfar towards the long-on boundary, where Naman Dhir caught the ball running in.
Dhir realised that he would step over the boundary with the ball in hand, so he relayed the catch to Tilak Varma, who did not even move to take it. Having dropped the catch, Tilak Varma got into a verbal spat with Dhir on the spot.
According to visuals, Tilak Varma seemed to believe that Dhir had stepped over the boundary ropes with the ball in hand, but replays confirmed that that was not the case, and Krunal Pandya had indeed been dropped.
Pandya added two more sixes in the same over before Tilak Varma completed the relay catch by himself off the last ball of that over.
Murali Kartik criticises Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir
Speaking on Cricbuzz, former India spinner Murali Kartik admonished the incident. He said that rather than trying to argue just there, the two fielders should have picked up the ball instead.
“It's a tough one for say. For us to speculate from afar is not the right thing. Even if you are a commentator and are on the ground, you don't know what exactly is happening. Sometimes with big teams, when things aren't going well, the easiest target is something like this. But one thing did upset me,” said Kartik.
“You spoke about the catch that Naman Dhir should have taken, just that interaction at that point in time. It wasn't needed, yes, they didn't take a single. They didn't take a run because Krunal was cramping at that time."
"But you don't need a fight in the middle or a bit of an altercation or argument. As Naman Dhir suggested, you should be throwing the ball. I don't know whether that's reflective of anything, but that is something that shouldn't have happened,” he added.
“Yes, there have been a million murmurs going around. Yes, there are things which haven't happened, and yes, the last three years haven't gone the way MI would have wanted. But for me, I didn't want to see what I saw today. All of us are pretty intense on the ground, but at the time, where common sense and cricket smarts need to take over,” said Kartik.
“At a crucial stage, you don't want two people to have an argument at the end of the boundary rope. You don't want to see that," he added.
Also Read: India stay No.1 in ICC ODI Rankings after annual update; Pakistan suffer massive fall
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