Virat Kohli continued his brilliance with the bat in the ongoing T20 World Cup as he slammed 64 not out off 44 balls in India’s nail-biting five-run victory (DLS method) over Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday (November 2).
During his knock, Kohli also got into a disagreement with Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan over a no-ball call.
The incident took place during the 16th over of India’s innings. Hasan Mahmud bowled a bouncer which Kohli pulled towards long leg. While Virat rushed for a single, he raised one of his hands in the air as to gesture that the ball was too high and it should be called a no-ball.
Once Kohli reached the non-striker's end, umpire Marais Erasmus signalled a no-ball, which left Shakib a bit annoyed.
After the game, former Pakistan captains Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Malik weigh in on this matter and they were not on the same page.
“Shakib Al Hasan was probably saying that because you gestured, that’s why the umpire gave a no ball,” Malik said on A Sports.
Waqar opined: “Shakib is saying you do your batting, let the umpires do umpiring. He is saying the same things that we said. That if you are going to call something, you are going to put pressure on the umpire, then of course he is a big name. So sometimes umpires are under pressure.”
On the other hand, Wasim Akram said: “I think it’s a natural thing for the batsman, if they see a wide, they gesture to the umpire anyway. I don’t know the laws of today. Maybe a present player can tell us.”
Coming to the match, the Men in Blue posted a highly competitive 184/6 on the board after being asked to bat first. Besides Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (50 off 32 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (30 off 16 balls) made notable contributions with the bat.
Chasing the target, the Tigers got off to a blazing start as Litton Das took the Indian bowling attack to the cleaners. Thanks to his 21-ball half-century in the powerplay, Bangladesh reached 66/0 after 7 overs before the rain entered and the overs had to be curtailed.
While Bangladesh were 17 runs ahead of the DLS par score when the rain arrived, they got the revised target of 151 in 16 overs when the game resumed.
Soon after the rain break, Das got run out for 60 off 27 balls while the Indian bowlers held their nerves to restrict Bangladesh to 145/6. Arshdeep Singh (2-38), Hardik Pandya (2-28) and Mohammad Shami (1-25) bowled brilliantly post the rain interruption.
