T20 World Cup’22: Kohli’s ‘fake fielding’ saga continues

It doesn’t matter whether Virat Kohli actually managed to fool the batters, Bangladeshi and former India opener Aakash Chopra claims.“Fake fielding” means that it is actually his attempt to do so.

When Kohli scores a lot of runs, he’s in the news. When he is not, he appears in the news. He has made headlines for his incredible high level of energy during the practice session. When he decides to skip an optional session, he makes news once more. He is making headlines for his skillful fielding, and when he fakes it, he does the same. The most recent incident that has kept Virat Kohli in the news is fake fielding. He is, of course, India’s top run-scorer against Bangladesh and the T20 World Cup’s leading run-scorer at the moment. However, after Bangladesh keeper-batter Nurus Hasan accused him of “fake fielding,” all that seems to have taken a backseat.

So what’s the story? 

As Bangladesh openers Litton Das and Nazmul Hasan Shanto attempted a couple, India pacer Arshdeep Singh collected the ball in the deep in the second ball of the seventh over of the Bangladesh chase and threw it toward keeper Dinesh Karthik. Throughout all of this, Kohli, who had no part in the action, made the gesture of collecting the ball and throwing it despite the fact that the ball was not even close to him. According to Bangladesh and former India opener Aakash Chopra, it doesn’t matter if the batters were tricked or not because the Bangladesh pair completed the second run without difficulty regardless of Kohli’s actions. What counts as “fake fielding” is actually the attempt to do so.

What does the ‘fake fielding’ rule say? 

Cricket’s law 41.5, pertaining to unfair play, says “…it is unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt, by word or action, to distract, deceive or obstruct either batter after the striker has received the ball.”

Simply put, the fielding team can be penalised by five runs if the umpires believe that the fielder attempted to deceive batters by faking a dive, throw, or other fielding gesture when the ball was not near him.

If Virat's fake fielding action really deceived the batter, then why didn't he appeal to the umpire right then? The umpire would have reviewed it. The fact that he didn't appeal tells you that the action didn't bother or deceived him in the first place. #INDvsBAN #ViratKohli𓃵

— Kalamwala (@kalamwalainsaan) November 3, 2022

The essential reason of the law is that assuming the on-field umpire feels that you have attempted to hoodwink the players (by faking a toss or a jump or whatever other activity when the ball isn’t close to you) presently regardless of whether they have been really tricked doesn’t make any difference. There will be five penalty runs as a result. Assuming that five punishment runs were given, the two that the Bangladesh pair ran, would have still have been counted, the ball would have been dead and Bangladesh would have been able to pick who takes strike in the following ball. As a result, the repercussions are severe, and the penalty for false fielding is incredible.

ALSO READ: T20 World Cup’22, IRE vs NZ: NZ wins by 35 runs!

“Now what happened in this case? The on-field umpire didn’t see. It completely went unnoticed. If no one has seen it then you can’t charge it. The law says that the umpires need to notice it and judge it. Maybe the third umpire, if it’s in jurisdiction, can also intervene. Woh fake fielding tha, 100% tha, wo jo throw marne ka prayas kia wo agar umpire dekhte toh 5 run ki pentaly padti humko aur 5 run se hum match bhi jeete. (Yes that 100% fake fielding because of the way he attempted to throw the ball. If the umpires had seen it then we would’ve been slapped with a five-run penalty and we’ve won by five runs only.) So we escaped here but next time if someone does this then the umpires will have to be more careful. So are Bangladesh right? Yes, they are but nobody noticed it then so can’t do anything now,”

Chopra said on his YouTube channel.