Twitter erupts as Virat Kohli survives because of a controversial decision by the third umpire
The top 2 Test sides in the world, India and England, are battling it out in a five test match series and the scoreline is interestingly poised at 2-1 after three Tests. The fourth Test has already seen quite a few ups and downs in the first three days.
While Sam Curran rescued England in their first innings, Pujara was India's hero as the top-order batsman scored 132 to take India to a lead of 27 in first innings. In England's second innings, half-centurion Jos Buttler helped England set a target of 245 with the help of useful contributions from Keaton Jennings, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and none other than Sam Curran.
Chasing a record total of 245, India were in a spot of trouble as the English pacers sent back the top 3 for just 22 runs. Ajinkya Rahane joined Virat Kohli in the middle in the ninth over and the two had to face the testing bowling from the English.
In the 17th over of the Indian innings, Moeen Ali struck Kohli on his pads off the third ball in front of the stumps but the on-field umpire, Kumar Dharmasena felt that the Indian captain was not out. After a small chat, the English team challenged the on-field umpire's decision and asked for a review.
The ball was travelling very close to the bat before it went on to hit the pads but there was no clarity whether the bat hit the ball or not. So the third umpire moved onto the UltraEdge to check if there was any sound as the ball passes the bat. UltraEdge showed a slight fluctuation when the ball passed the bat but the sound may have been due to the bat rubbing against the pad as there was no distinct bat on ball sound.
Even though there was no clarity, the third umpire Joel Wilson made his decision that there was an inside edge and the on-field decision stayed. As a result of the decision, England also lost their review. To rub salt to the wounds of the English team, the ball tracking showed that the ball was hitting in-line thumping into the leg-stump.
Kohli survived the decision when he was on 9 so it will interesting to see how much more Virat Kohli can add to his tally.
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