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Virat Kohli ‘contentious’ catch in Perth Test irks Indian cricket team fans

Virat Kohli Was Dismissed For 123 With Peter Handscomb Taking The Catch At Second Slip But The Event Was Marred By A 'dodgy' Decision From The Umpire.

News Nation Bureau | Edited By : Siddharth Vishwanathan | Updated on: 16 Dec 2018, 01:04:27 PM
Virat Kohli smashed his 25th century and his sixth in Australia but he was dismissed just before the stroke of lunch. (Image credit: Twitter)

New Delhi:

Virat Kohli was batting like a dream on day 3 of the Perth Test against Australia. The Indian skipper notched up his 25th century and sixth in Australia by driving Mitchell Starc to the long off fence for a boundary. After that, he pointed to his bat and made a gesture with his hand which stated, “My bat does the talking”. The intent signalled one thing that he was ready to pile on the misery on the Australians. He upper-cut Josh Hazlewood to the third man fence and registered some crisp boundaries off Starc. With lunch approaching and India erasing the deficit, Kohli was on 123 and India dominated. However, the Indian skipper drove a full ball and the edge flew to Peter Handscomb at second slip.

Handscomb moved to his right and got the fingers underneath the ball and he claimed the catch. The third umpire was asked to look into it and umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave the soft signal as out. Replays were not that conclusive to overturn the decision and Kohli was given the marching orders. India lost their last five wickets for 32 runs as Australia seized a 43-run lead. Following the decision, Kohli was bitterly disappointed and he could be seen blurting out expletives as he walked back to the dressing room.

Read MoreVirat Kohli hits 25th century, equals Sachin Tendulkar’s record

However, the catch has drawn sharp divisions from social media users. Many Indian cricket fans believed that the catch was not clean and Kohli fell victim to some poor umpiring yet again. Many former cricket players voiced their opinion on Twitter with some questioning whether the catch was clean.

Read MoreIshant Sharma takes jibe at Australian media over ‘no balls’

However, there was one more section of social media users who pointed out that when KL Rahul took the catch of Josh Hazlewood in the fourth innings of the Adelaide Test, there were not too many questions raised. In that match, replays showed that Rahul apparently might have not taken the catch cleanly when Hazlewood edged Ravichandran Ashwin. India went on to win the match by 31 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Australia heaved a high sigh of relief when Kohli was given out and they would be aiming to press home the advantage as they look to bounce back and level the series.

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First Published : 16 Dec 2018, 01:01:13 PM

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