Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Livemint
Livemint
National
Sounak Mukhopadhyay

Virat Kohli’s ‘fake fielding’ could have cost India the match against Bangladesh: What do the rules say?

Virat Kohli has been accused of 'fake fielding' in the Bangladesh match.

During the second innings, rain fell more heavily than was anticipated in Adelaide. While grounds staff promptly covered the wicket table, the outfield was becoming sodden. Some people criticised the International Cricket Council (ICC) for cancelling the Australia vs England match last week due to the "slippery outfield", yet allowing India and Bangladesh to resume play after the rain delay.

Also Read: Virat Kohli ‘all-time great’, Sourav Ganguly says after India’s thrilling win

Bangladesh opener Litton Das, who had a stunning start of the run chase, hit a ball from Axar Patel down to deep backward point during the seventh over of the innings. Arshdeep Singh caught the ball and lobbed it back into the striker's end, limiting Das to just two runs. Even though the ball was going over his head from the deep, Kohli - positioned at point and halfway in from Arshdeep, pretended to throw the ball at the non-end. Striker's

What do the rules say?

Players are forbidden from "the deliberate distraction, deception, or obstruction of the batter" according to Cricket Law 41.5. If the incident is found to have violated the regulation, the umpire has the authority to award the batting side five penalty runs and declare the ball dead. This law was put into place because fielders were purposefully appearing to have the ball in order to deceive the batsmen and stop them from making additional runs.

Also Read: India is no Tees Maar Khan, will lose semi-final and return home next week; predicts 'frustrated' Shoaib Akhtar

If on-field umpires Chris Brown and Marais Erasmus had believed that Kohli’s actions were an attempt to intentionally deceive the batter, Bangladesh would have been awarded five penalty runs. The decision, however, must be decided by the umpires in real-time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sounak Mukhopadhyay

Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer.
Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.