Saturday’s incident occurred in the 29th over of the Afghanistan innings, when Kohli advanced towards umpire Aleem Dar in an aggressive manner when appealing an lbw decision. Kohli admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Chris Broad of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees, and as such, there was no need for a formal hearing.
One demerit point added
In addition to this, one demerit point has been added to the disciplinary record of Virat Kohli, for whom it was the second offence since the introduction of the revised Code in September 2016. Kohli now has two demerit points after having got one demerit point during the Pretoria Test against South Africa on 15 January 2018.
On-field umpires Aleem Dar and Richard Illingworth, third umpire Richard Kettleborough and fourth official Michael Gough levelled the charges. Level 1 breaches carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand, a maximum penalty of 50 per cent of a player’s match fee, and one or two demerit points.
The thrilling encounter ebbed and flowed right through the 100 overs and Virat Kohli was emotionally flowed involved in the game. He also wasn’t happy with the DRS call which went against India early in the Afghanistan innings. Hazratullah Zazai was pinned in front of the stumps by Mohammed Shami but the on-field umpire turned down the vociferous appeal.
After a lot of deliberation, Kohli went for the review only to see that the ball was pitching outside the leg-stump. It was so close that the Indian captain couldn’t believe it and had an animated discussion with the umpire. India lost their only review as well.
