NEW DELHI: Tempers flared up during a post-match chat between former cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar and Irfan Pathan over the disastrous Virat Kohli-Yashasvi Jaiswal run out that put India on the backfoot late on the second day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Both Manjrekar and Pathan were on-air when the ugly collision between the two took place over difference of opinion on the Kohli-Jaiswal run out.
While Manjrekar was convinced that Kohli was at fault, Pathan was seen defending the India veteran.
The difference of opinions escalated a bit with Manjrekar saying to Pathan in frustration, ‘aap hi bol lo fir’.
Here’s how the conversation happened:
Manjrekar: “At the other end was Virat Kohli and we tend to think a little more from his side. It was a schoolboy error from Kohli to look behind and decide that there was no run. The call is not for the non-striker to make. It always belongs to the batter who has played the ball. If Jaiswal had made a bad call then he would have suffered because Cummins would have gone for the non-striker end. But since Kohli said no, Yashasvi had no chance. This is what my take on the matter is.”
Pathan: “There is another truth of cricket that if the ball is played at point, the non-striker is the one to make a call. And the striker is at full liberty to turn it down. He can also say no sometimes.”
Manjrekar: “But Irfan, here you are talking about point…”
Manjrekar: “If you don’t want to listen, there isn’t much left here,” before he took a sly dig at Pathan. “I think the time has come for a new coaching manual to be released, which will have Irfan Pathan’s version of running between the wicket”.
The horrendous Kohli-Jaiswal run out took place on the final ball of the 41st over, when the latter hit a Scott Boland ball to mid-on and straightaway took off for a single.
However, Kohli at the non-striker’s end didn’t respond and that led to Jaiswal being dismissed for 82 late in the final session of the day.
Kohli himself then walked back an over after the run out, falling to Boland for 36.