In a heated men’s T20 World Cup match in Adelaide on Wednesday, Bangladesh’s wicketkeeper-bat Nurul Hasan claimed that the on-field umpires had overlooked an instance of Virat Kohli’s “fake fielding” during their five-run loss.
The unreported incident occurred in Bangladesh’s sixth over of the chase when Kohli pretended to be relaying an Arshdeep Singh throw from the deep. It was missed by the two hitters who were out in the middle, Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto, as well as the umpires Marais Erasmus and Chris Brown. The “deliberate distraction, deceit, or obstruction of [the] batter” is forbidden under Law 41.5, which deals with unfair play. If an occurrence is found to be a violation, the umpire may rule that specific delivery to be a dead ball and provide the batting side five runs.
According to Nurul, if Bangladesh had won that decision, the outcome may have been different. India beat the odds by five runs [DLS method], exactly the amount of the run penalty for false fielding.
Nurul Hasan accuses Kohli of fake fielding
Everybody could see that the field was wet, and finally, Nurul told reporters, “I felt like t`here was a false throw while we were discussing and it might have been a five run penalty and it could have gone our way, but regrettably even that didn’t occur.”
In addition, various umpiring choices in the Group 2 game were scrutinized. When Hasan Mahmud top-edged an attempted pull during the 16th over of India’s batting, Kohli pointed out to the square-leg umpire that Mahmud had violated the one bouncer per over regulation. Umpire Erasmus upheld the no-ball ruling, which caused Kohli, Shakib Al Hasan, and Erasmus to quickly team up.
Bangladesh later in the game appeared to be annoyed by having to continue their pursuit so quickly after a heavy downpour had saturated the ground. While the umpires discussed the playing conditions in the shortened game with the two captains, Shakib was seen stroking the grass with his hand. During the press conference, Shakib avoided going into detail about the issues and stated that both teams played the game with good sportsmanship.