Chasing 223, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were bowled out for 221 on the last ball as KKR won the match by 1 run.
RCB’s star batsman and former captain Virat Kohli was adjudged out on the first ball of the third over when he was caught by surprise by a full toss from Harshit Rana and ended up edging a simple return catch.
As the KKR players celebrated the prized wicket and the on-field umpire raised his finger, Virat went for the review as he thought the ball was a waist high full-toss and hence a no-ball.
But the replays showed that as it was a slower ball, it dipped as it reached Kohli and more importantly the side angles showed that he was standing outside the crease.
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Ball-tracking showed that the ball would have been below the waist had Kohli been in his normal batting stance inside the batting crease.
An infuriated Virat started to walk off the field shaking his head and came back to have quite a few angry words with the umpires.
Many former cricketers shared their views on the controversial dismissal.
While former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu disagreed with the decision, another former cricketer Irfan Pathan said it was a legal delivery and hence Kohli was out.
Now former cricketer Mohammad Kaif too shared his view on the controversial dismissal.
Talking on his official X handle, Kaif says, “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,” Kaif 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,” Kaif concluded.
Bottom-placed RCB play their next match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday.