“Try Eating Apple”: Twitter User Takes a Dig at Naveen ul Haq for Leaking 19 Runs in 19th Over vs Mumbai Indians

Playing an Indian Premier League 2023 match after warming the bench for a couple of matches across almost two weeks, Lucknow Super Giants fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq faltered at his primary job of bowling in the death overs. Asked to bowl the penultimate over of a tense run-chase where Mumbai Indians required 30 runs in the last two overs to chase down a 178-run target, Naveen ended up leaking 19 runs.

Bowling to Australian batters Tim David (32*) and Cameron Green (4*), the right-arm bowler failed to contain the former as he hit him for a couple of sixes to reduce the equation to needing 11 runs in the last over. Naveen, who wasn’t able to execute the yorker, was punished for bowling in David’s range.

Additionally, one of the Naveen’s attempted yorkers ended up becoming a high full-toss. In what was a clear-cut waist height no-ball, it even deceived wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock (16) to run all the way for four byes.

Naveen, who didn’t pick any wicket tonight, had given away only 18 runs in his first three overs. However, a bumper fourth over saw him registering bowling figures of 4-0-37-0 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

Twitter User Takes a Dig at Naveen ul Haq for Leaking 19 Runs

Naveen, who has been doing the rounds across social media platforms for his involvement in the build-up to an altercation between LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir and former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli earlier this month, was criticized on Twitter for his performance in the recently concluded match.

“Next time try eating apple Naveen, better for health than mangoes,” tweeted a fan. For those who don’t know, Naveen had posted Instagram stories of relishing mangoes in his hotel room when RCB were losing to MI at the Wankhede Stadium last week. Hence, the below mentioned tweet was uploaded in the same context.

Had it not been for pacer Mohsin Khan (1/26) not bowling a match-winning 5-run 20th over, Super Giants were highly likely to lose the match as the odds were against them before the start of the final over.

Naveen-ul-Haq IPL 2023 Record

Playing his maiden season of the IPL, the Afghan player has picked seven wickets across six outings at an average of 19.28, an economy rate of 6.75 and a strike rate of 17.14. With England fast bowler Mark Wood returning back home, Lucknow are relying on 23-year old Naveen to play the role of their chief overseas pacer in the remaining matches.