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Virat Kohli’s first Ranji Trophy match for Delhi (against Railways) after more than 12 years kicked off at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday.
Fan breaks past security to touch Virat Kohli’s feet during Ranji Trophy match in Delhi. (Picture Credit: Screengrab)
Virat Kohli is playing for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 Elite Group D match against Railways at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. For his first Ranji match after more than 12 years, which kicked off on Thursday (January 30), fans have gathered in huge numbers in the Delhi stadium, and during the morning session of the first day’s play, a fan breached security to enter the field of play and touch Virat’s feet.
In several videos going viral on the internet, the fan can be seen running to the slips and touching Virat’s feet. Soon after his act, the fan was caught by the security officials, but in the viral clip, Kohli can be seen requesting the security officials not to beat the fan.
More than 15,000 fans are present at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday for Kohli’s first Ranji Trophy match since November 2012.
The unmatched aura of Virat Kohli was on full display in and around the Arjun Jaitley Stadium even before the Ranji Trophy fixture between Delhi and Railways could start as thousands of fans queued up to watch the superstar in his first domestic red-ball appearance in 13 years.
The DDCA (Delhi and Districts Cricket Association) had projected a crowd of around 10,000 for Kohli’s homecoming, which is unheard for a Ranji Trophy game. But such was his magnetic pull that even those lofty calculations went for a toss.
Long before the start of play at 9.30am local time, Kohli’s loyal band of supporters were jostling to enter the stadium.
At first, the DDCA opened the roughly 6,000-capacity ‘Gautam Gambhir Stand’ for spectators but sensing the crowd situation could go out of hand, the officials were forced to open the ‘Bishan Bedi Stand’ which can accommodate around 14,000 people.
The ‘Gautam Gambhir Stand’ was already packed to the rafters and it hardly took time to fill the lower tier of the ‘Bishan Bedi Stand’, taking the crowd count well past 12,000 at toss.
The deafening roars of “Kohli, Kohli” could be heard from a distance as the former India captain took the field with the rest of the Delhi teammates who too were experiencing something special.
(With inputs from PTI)
