Bangladesh’s Nurul Hasan Accuses Virat Kohli Of ‘Fake Fielding,’ Demands 5-Run Penalty

The Indian cricket team has taken one more step towards semi-finals in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 as it defeated Bangladesh in yesterday’s match which was played at Adelaide Oval. This cricket match was an exciting and thrilling encounter which was filled with superb performances, rain interruption and controversies as well.

Virat Kohli once again played a brilliant knock and this time he was in the center of two controversies, first related to no ball and second related to fake fielding. In the 16^th over of the Indian innings which was bowled by Hasan Mahmud, the last ball of the over was a short delivery and Virat raised his hand towards the on-field umpire soon after playing the shot as he was asking whether it was no-ball or not because of the shoulder height.

Soon the umpire raised his hand and signaled the delivery as no-ball after which Bangladeshi skipper Shakib Al Hasan came and had a friendly chat with Kohli and the umpire. Many felt that Shakib said to Virat that the umpire signaled no-ball because he asked for it otherwise he wouldn’t have given it no-ball. If you remember, the similar thing happened in the match against Pakistan and the Pak skipper Babar Azam objected to it as well.

While speaking in a TV show, former Pakistani cricketer Waqar Younis states that Virat Kohli asking umpires for no-balls is not a correct thing because umpires may come under pressure as Virat is a massive name in the cricket world.

Bangladeshi wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan leveled allegations of fake fielding against Virat Kohli while speaking to the reporters after the match. Nurul showed no hesitation in expressing his annoyance as he felt that umpires were quick in removing the covers and the field was wet which had an effect on the match. He also stated that Kohli was involved in an act of fake fielding but that was not noticed otherwise India could have been fined with five run penalty (the same amount of runs by which India won the match).

Nurul Hasan was talking about the incident which took place before rain halted the Bangladeshi innings. In the seventh over of the Bangladeshi innings which was bowled by Axar Patel, Litton Das played the second delivery towards the off-side which was fielded by Arshdeep Singh. The young pacer threw the ball towards the wicketkeeper DInesh Karthik, Virat Kohli was standing a little distance away from DK and he made an action of collecting the ball from Arshdeep and throwing it towards DK.

Here is the video of the incident about which Nurul Hasan has talked about:

However, now there are reports that Nurul Hasan may get sanctioned for slamming the match officials as neither Litton Das nor Najmul Hossain Shanto saw it or got distracted because of it.

As far as the match is concerned, the toss was won by Bangladesh and Shakib Al Hasan chose to bowl first. The skipper Rohit Sharma departed soon on the score of 2 but KL Rahul who was getting slammed for his poor performances in the tournament played a good knock of 50 runs (32 balls, 3 fours & 4 sixes). Virat Kohli scored his third fifty of the tournament as he scored 64 runs not out (44 balls, 8 fours & 1 six). Suryakumar Yadav played a quick knock of 30 runs (16 balls, 4 fours) and Ravichandran Ashwin finished the Indian innings with style as he scored 13 runs of just 6 deliveries (1 four & 1 six).

India posted a total of 184/6 in its stipulated 20 overs and in response, Bangladesh’s Litton Das started in a terrific manner as he scored his fifty in just 21 deliveries. Bangladesh was going pretty strong as it had scored 66/0 in 7 overs when rain stopped the match. After the game resumed, the Bangladeshi innings was reduced to 16 overs and the target was reduced to 151 which would have been very easy to achieve if Litton Das had been on the crease, however a direct hit from KL Rahul sent Litton Das back to the dug-out and this could easily be called the turning point of the match.

Indian bowlers made a good comeback in the match after getting thrashed by Litton Das and Bangladesh could manage only 145/6 in its 16 overs.

Virat Kohli was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his superb innings and now India will be facing Zimbawe in its last Super 12 match on 6 Nov 2022 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Hopefully India won’t be complacent as this Zimbabwe team has already defeated Pakistan.