A contentious DRS decision, involving Virat Kohli, stirred controversy during an IPL 2024 match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Eden Gardens on Sunday (April 21).
KKR's Harshit Rana ended Kohli's stay at a 7-ball 18 through a return catch during the third over of the chase. While the RCB star felt it was a waist-high no-ball and argued with the umpires, the Hawk-Eye showed that the ball would have passed below his waist if he had stayed inside his crease.
Kohli’s controversial dismissal divided opinions among the cricket fraternity members. While ex-India batter Navjot Singh Sidhu disagreed with the decision, former all-rounder Irfan Pathan opined that it was a legal delivery.
Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif also shared his two cents on this dismissal, claiming that Virat Kohli was hard done by the umpires.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Kaif shared a video, in which he said: "You can dismiss a batsman in different ways and if you bowl 6 balls, you have 60 chances to dismiss a batsman. There are ten modes of dismissals to get a batsman out if you go by the laws and the rulebook."
"Now Virat Kohli has been dismissed on a beamer, you can add this mode of dismissal too. To give Virat Kohli out on a beamer is a very bad decision because the ball on your waist height cannot be controlled, it's not allowed. The ball accidentally slipped out of Harshit Rana's hand, it became a waist-high full toss and should have been a no-ball. Rana should have apologized, saying sorry the ball slipped out of my hand, there Virat Kohli was given out, that's a very bad decision because the trajectory doesn't matter," he added.
"I understand that he was out of the crease but he played the ball on his waist, that cannot be controlled. The batsman always looks down where the ball is pitching, no one is ready for this kind of a delivery, so it was one of the worst decisions by the umpire to adjudge Virat Kohli out," he further remarked.
Coming to the match, RCB finished on 221/10 in their allotted 20 overs while chasing the target of 223. After losing Virat Kohli (18) and Faf du Plessis (7) early, they rode on a 102-run stand between Rajat Patidar (52 off 23) and Will Jacks (55 off 32) to stay in the hunt. However, Andre Russell dismissed both of them in the 12th over to detail the chase.
An over later, Cameron Green (4) and Mahipal Lomror (6) were removed by Sunil Narine as RCB slipped to 155/6. While Suyash Prabhudessai (24 off 18), Dinesh Karthik (25 off 18) and Karn Sharma (20 off 7) came up with valiant efforts, KKR managed to hold their nerves to get over the line on the final delivery by a run.
