Former India opener Navjot Singh Sidhu has lashed out at the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli’s controversial during thier IPL 2024 match at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. During the third over of the RCB’s 223-run chase, Kohli ended up mishitting a full-toss from pacer Harshit Rana, who completed an easy caught and bowled dismissal. While KKR cricketers celebrated, Kohli went for a review as he was convinced that the ball was above his waist on contact with the bat.
The replays, however, showed that Kohli was out of his crease and third umpire Michael Gough decided that it was a fair delivery because of the dip in height.
After the decision went against him, Kohli looked visible upset and decided to have a got at the umpire and the officials. RCB skipper Faf du Plessis was involved in a heated discussion with the officials over the same.
Sidhu, however, slammed the KKR players, espcially Harshit, for getting Kohli out off a beamer. The cricketer-turned-politician also slammed the lawmakers of cricket over the same.
“MS Dhoni had recalled Ian Bell during a Test match. He went on to score 200. But Dhoni won the Spirit of Cricket award, that too in an international match. I can give you 10 such examples. You’ll get a player like Virat Kohli out with a beamer and you want me to praise you? I will never praise you. I can say it with full confidence that it was not out. This is not good for the game. If the law is bad, it has to be changed with time,” Sidhu said on commentary.
Coming back to the match, Karn Sharma hit three sixes off Mitchell Starc in the final over with RCB needing 21 runs. However, Starc held his nerves to get him out as KKR won the game by one run.
Speaking after the match, Faf opened up on Kohli’s controversial dismissal. He said: “It was crazy. Rules are rules, Virat and myself in that space thought the ball was higher than his waist. You always find one team happy and the other not so with such decisions.”
