India went from 80 for no loss to 80 for 3 in the matter of minutes but it was the third of those dismissals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday that truly set tongues wagging on social media.
The home team had just lost Cheteshwar Pujara for a five-ball duck and Ajaz Patel was in the middle of a sublime spell. But when Kohli walked in to bat, most expected him to find form from the word ‘go’.
But Kohli didn’t last too long in the middle. Umpire Anil Chaudhary gave him out LBW after just facing four deliveries and the decision which was later confirmed by the third umpire certainly didn’t go down well with the Indian skipper.
There was a spike on UltraEdge when the ball was close to the bat as Kohli pressed forward and the TV umpire had a look at it from various angles but the evidence wasn’t conclusive.
“Ball and bat and pad appears to be together. I don’t have any conclusive evidence to overturn that,” said the third umpire before asking umpire Anil Chaudhary to stick with the original decision.
He then had a look at the ball-tracking and there were three reds on Hawkeye.
Kohli couldn’t believe it and had a word with Nitin Menon before trudging back to the dressing room.
Commentator Simon Doull later said during the session break on Star Sports that there was agreement from those behind the mic that it was out but Sanjay Bangar in the studio was convinced it was bat first based on the direction the ball went after the fact. Either way, the decision divided opinion.