IPL 2024: Massive security breach as 14-year-old kid with black ticket enters field, hugs Virat Kohli

The IPL match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Saturday (Apr 6) was briefly halted due to a security breach when a fan entered the field and raced to Virat Kohli. The Indian batter was startled before he allowed the fan to hug him, albeit reluctantly. Afterwards, the stewards and security officials ran across the turf and escorted the fan out of the playing arena.

The police immediately took control of the rogue fan and brought him to a hall inside the stadium. Upon being quizzed by the WION correspondent, the kid revealed his name as Munir Ali, 14, hailing from Bihar's Araria district.

Ali revealed he was working in Delhi's Ghazipur market and that he arrived in Jaipur on Friday (Apr 6). The kidsaid he was approached by a guy named Shubham outside the stadium premises who said he was black-marketing the tickets.

Excited to watch his 'idol' Virat Kohli play, Ali said he splurged Rs 1,900 ($23) to buy the ticket and was later guided to the frisking zone by Shubham who immediately left the spot.

After the initial interrogation, Ali was taken to the police station where officers said "he would be further interrogated". Notably, Ali did not have the ticket on him at the time he was caught and gave Shubham's contact number to the authorities.

A fan entered into the ground to hug Virat Kohli 🫂#ViratKohli #Jaipur #RCBvsRR #RRvRCB #RRvsRCB pic.twitter.com/TcG1V9ADrU — BANSI ,بنشی (@ImBansi07) April 6, 2024

The incident comes days after a fan similarly dashed across the playing field to meet Kohli during RCB's encounter with Punjab Kings. A video later shared on social media showed that the fan was beaten black and blue by the police officers.

While WION cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video, the repeated instances of fans haring across the playing field have raised serious concerns over the security measures in the stadiums.

RR steamroll RCB

Kohli was at his fluent best yet again as he smashed his eighth IPL century, batting first against RR. The Indian batter looked assured from the beginning and carried his bat through even though other batters failed to build sustained partnerships with him.

The result of a lone battle from Kohli meant RCB finished with a below-par total of 183. Chasing the target, RR were off to a poor start as Yashasvi Jaiswal departed without opening the scoring. However, Jos Buttler finally returned to form and alongside skipper Sanju Samson, killed the game with an incredible 148-run partnership.

RR ultimately won the contest by six wickets with five balls to spare and continued their unbeaten start to the campaign. Meanwhile, RCB suffered their fourth defeat on the bounce.