IPL 2024: 'Virat and myself thought the ball was higher than the waist', Faf du Plessis on Kohli's dismissal vs KKR

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis reflected on the controversial dismissal of Virat Kohli during their IPL 2024 game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), stating that both Kohli and himself thought that the ball ended up being higher than the waist.

In the third over of RCB’s chase, Harshit Rana delivered a waist-high full toss, who ended up top edging to the bowler himself. That decision was then referred to the third umpire Michael Gough, who stood by the on-field umpire’s decision of out. This made Kohli furious at the on-field umpires, with Du Plessis also joining in on the defence of his teammate.

“It was crazy, rules are rules. Virat and myself thought that the ball was higher than the waist (during Kohli’s dismissal).  I guess they measured it from the popping crease, one team thinks it’s high, the other doesn’t. That’s how the game goes at times,” Du Plessis said during the post-match presentation ceremony.

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The delivery, which seemed to be dipping on the batter, was just above the waist of Kohli when he made contact with the ball. The star batter was standing just outside the crease at that moment.

Then TV umpire Michael Gough checked for the height and as per the Hawk-Eye tracking, the ball would have passed Kohli’s waist at a height of 0.92 meter had he was standing and upright at the crease.

In that position, Kohli’s waist was measured at 1.04 meters, which meant the ball would have travelled past below the batter’s waistline if he was standing inside the crease.

In that case, this would have been a legal delivery and the Gough had to take call based on the available height reference.

However, Kohli was not having none of it as he left the field an agitated man after having an animated discussion with the on-field umpire. The frustrated Kohli knocked the waste-bin located near away team dressing room in anger.

RCB eventually went onto lose the match by just one run after a dramatic final over where they needed 21 runs to win. Karn Sharma slammed three sixes to reduce the deficit to three from two balls, but he was eventually dismissed in the fifth ball by Mitchell Starc. With three runs required from one ball, Lockie Ferguson, who had just come out to bat, was run-out by Phil Salt as KKR romped towards a thrilling win.

The loss meant RCB remained rock bottom of the points table with two points from eight matches, with just one win to their name.

With PTI inputs