An India vs. Bangladesh World Cup match is rarely short on drama. Since the 2007 ODI World Cup, whenever these two Asian giants have crossed paths in an ICC event, it has resulted in nail-biting contests filled with tension, emotion, and of course, some exhilarating cricket from both sides. To say Wednesday’s India vs. Bangladesh T20 World Cup match at the Adelaide Oval lived up to expectations would be an understatement. from Taskin Ahmed’s quality seam bowling to Virat Kohli and KL Rahul’s classy strokeplay. From Litton Das’ clean ball-striking to rain interruptions, from the debate over multiple umpiring decisions to pulsating fielding, and finally, a heart-racing finish that went India’s way, the match had everything.
And like most other India-Bangladesh World Cup clashes in the last decade, the aftershock was felt even after the match ended. Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan stood firm and maintained the match was played in good spirits and that there was no malice from their side, despite being grilled in the press conference for his animated gestures during the rain break, perhaps expressing his unhappiness with the swift resumption of proceedings after a pretty heavy downpour. The match was reduced to 16 overs per side, and Bangladesh were given a revised target of 151.
The same, however, was not maintained by Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan. The right-hander had no intention of hiding his disappointment about the “wet outfield,” but more significantly, he accused India’s Virat Kohli of “fake fielding” during the Bangladesh chase and added that the five penalty runs could have made the difference.
“Certainly the field was wet and it had an impact and everyone saw that, and eventually what I felt was that when we were talking there was a fake throw and it could have been a five-run penalty and that could have gone our way but unfortunately even that didn’t come,” Nurul told reporters after India won the match by five runs.
The incident Nurul was referring to took place before the rain interruption. During the second delivery of the seventh over of Bangladesh’s chase, Litton Das pushed an Axar Patel towards the off side and came back for a couple. When Arshdeep Singh, the fielder, threw the ball towards the keeper, India’s Virat Kohli, standing a few metres in front of Dinesh Karthik, was seen making a gesture of collecting the ball and throwing it when the ball was not even near him.
According to Law 41.5, which deals with unfair play, “deliberate distraction, deception, or obstruction of [the] batter” can lead to five penalty runs if the umpires find the fielding side guilty. But in this case, the umpires did not see anything wrong.
Interestingly, the rain resume and “fake fielding” were not the only umpiring decisions that were debatable on Wednesday. Dinesh Karthik was given the run-out by the third umpire despite replays showing the ball hadn’t dislodged the bails. In fact, it was the Bangladesh bowler’s hands. That was not the end of it. Karthik was once again in the thick of things. India pacer Arshdeep Singh found the outside edge of Litton Das’ bat, and the India keeper dived in front to take the catch, which was ruled not out by the third umpire after seeing just a couple of replays.
