Virat Kohli avoids Travis Head handshake after dramatic SRH vs RCB controversy

Tempers ran high during the match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday, and once again, Virat Kohli was at the center of it. SRH crushed RCB by 55 runs to finish their IPL 2026 league campaign strongly. During the game, Kohli and Travis Head were seen having a heated argument on the field. After the match, the tension continued as Kohli reportedly did not shake hands with Head. The on-field incident occurred when Kohli was batting along with Venkatesh Iyer.

The RCB batter was seen making an ‘X’ gesture with his hands, while hurling a mouthful at Head. The SRH star, instead of responding, just smirked. Commentators suggested that the RCB batter was asking the SRH star to roll his arm over or leave the field as an impact player. Kohli managed to score just 15 runs from 11 balls in the run chase.

Virat Kohli-Travis Head Handshake Snub Sparks Buzz After SRH vs RCB Clash

After the match, Virat Kohli shook hands with most of the Sunrisers Hyderabad players, but appeared to ignore Travis Head. Instead of shaking hands with Head, Kohli moved ahead and greeted Ishan Kishan, who was standing behind him. Right from the point where the chase started, it was pretty clear, that the 256-run target was out of reach for RCB.

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So, they perhaps did the smart thing, but not losing a lot of wickets, and aimed to get to 178, that was needed to finish on top. Apart from 44 from 19 by Venkatesh Iyer, all other other batters were relatively slow. Padikkal got 21 from 14, Krunal got 41 from 31 and skipper Patidar got 56 from 39. Abhishek Sharma was dropped thrice before scoring 56 from 22.

Then Ishan Kishan (79) and Heinrich Klaasen (51) took charge and added 113 runs in just 8 overs. Later, Nitish Kumar Reddy played a quick cameo to help Sunrisers Hyderabad reach a massive 255/4 in 20 overs. On a challenging pitch, Hyderabad’s batting performance sent a strong message to the rest of the teams. With this win, SRH secured a place in the Eliminator, while Royal Challengers Bengaluru will face Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.

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by Dwijesh May 22, 2026