RCB vs SRH: Virat Kohli’s ‘Rare’ Drop Catch Attracts Hilarious Reaction From Anushka Sharma In Stands | Watch

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru faced off against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the season opener of IPL 2026 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Making his IPL debut, New Zealand pacer Jacob Duffy made an immediate impact, troubling SRH’s top order by claiming three wickets in his four-over spell while conceding just 22 runs. Despite the early damage, Ishan Kishan anchored SRH’s recovery with a brilliant 97 off 53 balls, supported by Heinrich Klaasen, who contributed 31 runs. Their partnership for the fourth wicket helped stabilise the innings and set the stage for a possible comeback.

Virat Kohli Dropped a Sitter

Aniket Verma was given a big break at a critical juncture, and even the players and fans could hardly believe it. Scoring 26 runs off 12 balls, he launched one very risky shot against Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the intention of clearing the long-on boundary. Unfortunately, he didn’t get enough distance and hit a very high, mistimed ball that was going up in the air.

Long-on is the position of Virat Kohli, who was running in from the boundary line, and he looked completely ready to take an easy catch. Suddenly, he let the ball slip, dropping what should have been a simple catch. Kohli was clearly stressed, as such mistakes are almost non-existent in his amazingly accurate fielding record.

The stadium was so quiet for a moment that it showed the disbelief of the missed chance. Phil Salt and the rest of the RCB team had been brilliant in the field all through the match, hence this mistake being so prominent. It was a blessing for Verma as he later took a single and thought he was out before that.

Anushka Sharma’s Reaction became Viral

The way Anushka Sharma reacted to the dropped catch was really funny. She picked up the moment with the RCB women’s team stars and new RCB owner Ananya Birla, sharing their disbelief. Even Virat Kohli, the most consistent fielder of the team, blundered at long-on, leaving Aniket Verma a lifeline on 26 off 12 balls. A hush descended over the stadium as this was such a rare and surprising mistake of Kohli in the middle of the excellent fielding of the RCB.

Playing XIs

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (C), Jitesh Sharma (WK), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma

Impact subs: Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam Dar, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (C & WK), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga

Impact subs: Shivang Kumar, Liam Livingstone, David Payne, Smaran Ravichandran, Sakib Hussain

Also Read: IPL 2026: Virat Kohli Creates History With Epic Milestone In Match Against SRH | Check Full List Of Records