Daily Times

T20 World Cup: Bangladesh player accuses Virat Kohli of “Fake” Fielding

In his T20 World Cup match, Indian great Virat Kohli was accused by Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan of “fake fielding” that went unreported by the on-field umpires and cost his team five potentially crucial penalty runs. Bangladesh missed their revised target of 151 runs in 16 overs after a brief downpour by five runs. While Nurul kept Bangladesh in the game in the final over with a six and a four off Arshdeep Singh, his skipper Shakib Al Hasan appeared to criticize the on-field umpires after the game.

“Definitely, the wet outfield did have an impact when we restarted the game. But there was also a fake throw which could have got us five runs but we didn’t even get that,” Nurul said in Bengali at the mixed zone, indirectly accusing umpires Chris Brown and Marais Erasmus of overlooking the incident.

The incident that Nurul was referring to happened in the seventh over. A video recording showed that Arshdeep threw the ball from the deep and Kohli — at point — feigned as if he were relaying it at the non-striker’s end.

A relay throw occurs when the closer fielder catches the ball from deep and tosses it at the stumps.

The two batsmen, Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto, didn’t even look at Kohli, which raises issues about Nurul’s case.

The ICC playing conditions regulation 41.5, which deals with unfair play, prevents the fielding team from “deliberately distracting, deceiving, or obstructing the batter.”

If the umpire discovers a rule violation, he may declare a dead ball and issue five penalty runs.

While Nurul accused Kohli of fake fielding, he failed to consider the rule’s “distraction and deception” clause.

Neither Shanto nor Litton was looking at Kohli, and hence, they were not distracted or deceived.

On the contrary, there is a possibility that Nurul might be sanctioned for criticising the match officials.