ICC T20 World Cup 2022: War of words rages on after Bangladesh's Nurul Hasan accuses Kohli of 'fake fielding'

Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan has accused Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli of 'fake fielding', which went unreported by the on-field umpires and cost his team five potentially crucial penalty runs in their ICC T20 World Cup 2022 clash on Wednesday in Adelaide.

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Bangladesh fell short by five runs after being set a revised target of 151 in 16 overs following a brief spell of rain. Although skipper Shakib Al Hasan stated that his side lost fair and square, Nurul, who kept Bangladesh alive in the game in Arshdeep Singh's final over, criticised the umpires after the defeat.

"Definitely, the wet outfield did have an impact when we restarted the game. But there was also a fake throw which could have got us five runs, but we didn't even get that," Nurul said in Bengali at the mixed zone, indirectly accusing umpires Chris Brown and Marais Erasmus of overlooking the incident. 

The occurrence to which Nurul was alluding took place in the seventh over. Arshdeep delivered the ball from deep, and Kohli pretended to relay it at the non-striker's end while fielding at point, according to a video recording. The fielder closest to the track catches the ball from deep and makes a relay throw at the stumps.

Bangladesh's batters Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto did not even look at Kohli, and that's why Nurul's argument raises questions. 

Pertaining to unfair play, the ICC playing conditions rule 41.5 prohibits the fielding team from "deliberate, distraction, deception or obstruction of the batter". If the umpire determines that a regulation has been broken, he may call it a dead ball and award five penalty runs.

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Nurul accused Kohli of fake fielding, but he neglected to consider the "distraction and deception" portion of the regulation. Shanto and Litton weren't distracted or tricked because they were not looking at the former Indian skipper. On the contrary, there is a possibility that Nurul might be sanctioned for criticising the match officials.

Following this accusation, a war of words erupted between Indian and Bangladesh cricket fans on Twitter. While Bangladesh fans dubbed Kohli a 'cheater', fans of the Men in Blue raised questions over why the two batters on the crease did not raise the issue then.

Here's a look at some of the reactions of the micro-blogging site:

(With inputs from PTI)