[Watch] When Virat Kohli didn’t walk and umpire gave not out despite clear edge during NZ vs IND 2014 tour
2014 resonates with Virat Kohli and his fans like very few, given he endured some of the lowest moments of his illustrious career on the England tour and all-time highs in the following Australian tour. Yet, the New Zealand tour at the start of the season with a rare Kohli brain-fade moment often gets forgotten due to all that happened in England and Australia.
Kohli enjoyed an incredible start to the year with two half-centuries and a hundred in the five-ODI series before the Tests. However, the stylish batter scored only a combined 71 runs in the opening Test as India suffered a 40-run defeat.
Faced with a must-win second Test, Team India bowled the Blackcaps out for a paltry 192 and scored 438 in their first innings. Then came the moment that Kohli will want to forget forever as he dropped a sitter off Brendon McCullum on nine and the Kiwi skipper went on to score a game-changing 302.
It meant India was left to bat out over 50 overs on the final day with Kohli walking in on 10/2 in the sixth over. Under pressure after potentially costing India the game with his dropped catch, the champion batter nicked a delivery from Trent Boult but did not walk after the umpire inexplicably gave it not out.
Here is a video of the same:
Kohli was only on 15 when he failed to walk after clearly edging the delivery and ended with a game-saving unbeaten 105 off 135 balls.
His knock helped India manage a draw at 166/3 in 52 overs with the series ending in favor of the hosts by a 1-0 margin.
"Virat said sorry to Zak and Zak said, ‘No worries, we’ll get him out" - Ishant Sharma
Indian pacer Ishant Sharma recalled the infamous moment of Virat Kohli dropping Brendon McCullum in the second Test of the 2014 New Zealand tour.
Former pacer Zaheer Khan was the bowler to suffer from Kohli's costly drop as McCullum added another 293 runs.
In a conversation with Jio Cinema last year, Sharma narrated an incident in the dressing room after Kohli's drop.
“We were playing in New Zealand. Brendon McCullum had scored 300 runs and when Virat Kohli dropped a catch, I remembered that this happened around lunch. Virat said sorry to Zak and Zak said, ‘No worries, we’ll get him out.’ During tea, Kohli said sorry again and Zak told him not to worry. On the third day when Kohli apologized during tea, Zak told him, ‘You’ve ended my career!" said Ishant.
Incidentally, despite the dropped catch off his bowling, Zaheer finished with a five-wicket haul in the innings even as New Zealand piled up 680/8 declared.
Yet, the second Test in Wellington turned out to be Zaheer's final outing in Tests for India.