'Against the spirit of the game' - Navjot Singh Sidhu extends support to Kohli after controversial dismissal vs KKR

The Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) has made headlines for several controversial umpiring decisions in the tournament so far. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli also found himself on the receiving end of one such decision during Match 36 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday, April 21 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

During the second over of the second innings, Kohli faced a high full toss from Harshit Rana which took him by surprise and he ended up playing it in the air which was caught by the bowler. However, after seeing no signal from the umpire to adjudge it a ‘no ball’, Kohli decided to use DRS and asked the third umpire Michael Gough to intervene.

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Much to his dismay, the RCB star faced disappointment from the third umpire as well who ruled the decision in Kolkata’s favour as Kohli was found out of crease while facing the delivery and also played it a bit away from his body while it was dipping. As a result, he had to walk back to the pavilion on 18 (7) leaving his team on 27/1.

Following his dismissal, Kohli was seen furiously walking back to the dressing room as he even got involved in a heated chat with the on-field umpires. While the cricketing fraternity is divided on the legitimacy of the dismissal, former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was part of the Hindi commentary panel for the game supported Kohli and called the incident against the ‘spirit of the game’.

“MS Dhoni withdrew his appeal and re-called Ian Bell to the crease during the Nottingham Test in 2011. Bell went on to score 159 but Dhoni won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award that year. I can give you ten examples. You can’t get Virat Kohli out like that and think that Navjot Singh Sidhu will approve of it. I will never do it. It was not out and it’s not good for the ‘spirit of the game’ either. If a law is bad it has to be changed. With time, laws have changed,” said Sidhu on Star Sports.

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RCB lose sixth consecutive game of the season

Meanwhile, coming back to the match, RCB failed to chase down the massive target of 223 as they agonizingly fell one two runs short of it and lost the match despite half-centuries from Will Jacks (55 off 32) and Rajat Patidar (52 off 23). As a result, RCB suffered their sixth consecutive loss of the season and continues to reel at the bottom of the points table with just one win from eight matches having two points to their name.