ICC World T20 | Twitter reacts to Virat Kohli being falsely labelled cheater for 'fake fielding' against Bangladesh

11/03/2022

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The boon of being one of the greatest in the world in any sport is the spotlight and attention that comes with it, for things big and small. Perhaps no one understands that better than Virat Kohli as the talisman was once again under the radar on Wednesday after Bangladeshis accused him of cheating.

Virat Kohli is all over the headlines once again, for things good and bad, much like during his prime. The rejuvenated batter has roared back to form in recent times with aplomb, ending a three-year international century drought before scoring a string of half-centuries to lead his team to one incredible win after another. The 33-year-old is the leading run scorer in the ongoing World T20 at the moment and well on course to be named the player of the tournament for a record third time after another man-of-the-match performance against Bangladesh in Adelaide on Wednesday. After a long time, Kohli seems to be genuinely enjoying representing India and playing his best cricket, as is evident in his over-expressive nature while batting and overwhelming enthusiasm on the field at all times.

Kohli's unbeaten 64 off 44 balls had led the Men in Blue to a commanding total of 184/5 but the Tigers almost took away the game largely courtesy of a ferocious opening blitz by Litton Das, only to end up falling short by five runs in a rain-marred innings. However, if Bangladesh's Nurul Hasan is to be believed, their Asian rivals must have been penalized five runs for their star player's antics thus swinging the result away from the eventual winners.

On the second ball of the seventh over, Litton Das stroked Axar Patel's arm ball towards point for a quick but comfortable two. While Arshdeep Singh was throwing the ball to the keeper, Kohli seemed to pretend the ball was in his grasp and throw it at the bowler's end as it passed him at point.

According to ICC's latest rules, any case of 'fake fielding' that deceives batsmen is worth five penalty runs for the batting team. However, Kohli is known for being extremely animated while fielding, especially in crunch games, and his actions had absolutely no impact on the game. The incident was so innocuous that it even failed to catch the attention of either batsmen or the umpires and was not brought up until after the game's conclusion. The 33-year-old has always been a victim of intense scrutiny for his actions and this was just another example of the media making a mountain of a molehill, as pointed out by Twitterati.

What is your opinon?

So this is what Bangladesh's player, Nurul Hassan was talking about in the presser that umpires didn't listen on fake fielding by Kohli. According to ICC rules, there should have been 5 penalty runs here. Bangladesh lost by 5 runs in the end. pic.twitter.com/3GdnuluQuH
— Hassan Cheema (@Gotoxytop1) November 2, 2022

Can this be called distracting

Kohli was spotted distracting Shanto by "fake fielding." As per the law, India was supposed to be given 5 runs penalty for such a shameful. But guess what? The on-field umpires didn't even care to recheck and instantly denied taking any action. #cheating #T20WorldCup #INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/A5MPAIilE8
— Nazmus Sajid Chowdhury (@nazmussajid) November 2, 2022

What of course?

Fake fielding. 5 run penalty. Missed by umpires. Of course. https://t.co/KgRBHz9jv3
— Dennis Fake Fielding (@DennisCricket_) November 2, 2022

How is this fake fielding?

Dear @ICC it’s not fake fielding?

Shame on. ICC = Indian Cricket Council. pic.twitter.com/5I79hHwLFC
— Mohammad Ridwan (@HridoyK28926987) November 2, 2022

That was not deceiving

Regarding the Kohli fake fielding thing, the rule is quite clear, that an attempt to deceive the batters can lead to a penalty of 5 runs, or dead ball.

Think to avoid such instances where the umpires have missed something like this, cricket needs to bring in retrospective ruling
— Gurkirat Singh Gill (@gurkiratsgill) November 3, 2022

No appeal

I just checked the Full Replay of the Over ,

There was clearly No Appeal by the Bangladesh players , Umpire seems to have missed it .

Fake Fielding is a Penalty but No one Appealed or Noticed at Live . So All the Whinge & Cry after the match is utterly useless. pic.twitter.com/XoTfC3CL02
— Cricpedia 2.0 (@Cricpedia_) November 2, 2022

They did not hesitate

The umpires did not hesitate for a second when Virat requested a no ball. However, when Nurul Hasan complained about the fake fielding, the umpire didn’t even respond. This would have resulted in a five-run penalty, and we lost by five runs. #cheating #INDvsBAN @ICC #Boycott_ICC pic.twitter.com/vrACyGonQp
— Taosif Shahrier (@TaosifShahrier) November 3, 2022

Umpires did great work

Wow umpires, thanks. Great umpiring throughout the match. During batting Kohli asked umpire to give no ball, then umpire approved it.

Fake fielding done by him but umpires ignored it.

Field wasn't completely ready to play but inspite of that umpires resumed the match , https://t.co/hUqMvYjSr3
— Nasreen🧕🇧🇩 (@NA__SR__EEN3) November 2, 2022

Mathing???

Ban lost to India by 5 runs - if India was penalized for fake fielding incident Ban would have gotten those 5 runs

Pak lost to India by 1 run - India insisted on no ball and got 1 run for it.

If I was a statistician - wait I am one, yeah the math isn’t mathing.
— zehra🫧 (@misosoup711) November 2, 2022

definetly not