Virat Kohli fined 50 per cent of match fee following angry outburst at umpires during KKR-RCB clash

Virat Kohli has been fined 50 per cent of his match fees, presumably for his angry outburst at the umpires during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday.

Kohli instantly signalled for a review after chipping a waist-high full toss from Harshit Rana in the second over back to the bowler for a simple catch. TV umpire Michael Gough however, ruled it in favour of the bowler after replays showed the star batter was standing well outside the popping crease.

The former India and RCB captain wasn’t pleased with the verdict, and did not leave the ground without unleashing his rage at on-field umpires Akshay Totre and Vinod Seshan. RCB skipper du Plessis too joined Kohli’s protest and was seen engaging in an animated chat with the umpires even as Kohli huffed and puffed his way back to the dugout.

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“Mr Virat Kohli, Batter, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has been fined 50 per cent of his match fees for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during Match 36 of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on April 21, 2024,” read an official statement from the IPL Governing Council.

Kohli was dismissed on 18 off seven deliveries during RCB’s chase of the steep 223-run target set by KKR. Bengaluru would end up suffering a heartbreaking one-run loss at the Eden Gardens to suffer their sixth defeat on the trot and their seventh overall in IPL 2024, with Kolkata completing a season double against them.

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The HawkEye technology that is currently being implemented in the IPL also takes into account the height of the ball at the time of it passing over the crease in full tosses. That number is then compared with the height of a batter’s waist when standing upright at the crease to determine whether a delivery is legal or not.

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Replays showed that the ball would have gone over the popping crease at a height of 0.92m, which is less than the height of Kohli’s waist that has been measured at 1.04m. Thus, the ball would’ve been legal had Kohli been standing upright in his stance at the crease.

Kohli, however, clearly did not see things the way the third umpire did and was seething while making his way back to the dugout. And neither was his opening partner and RCB skipper du Plessis.

“Obviously, the rules are the rules.Virat and myself at that stage thought that possibly the ball was higher than his waist. I guess they measure it on the popping crease.

“In those situations, you’ll always have one team that’s happy and one team that doesn’t feel like it’s quite the right decision. But that’s just how the game works,” du Plessis said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Kohli, meanwhile, wasn’t the only fined on Sunday. Du Plessis was fined Rs 12 lakh after being found guilty of over-rate offence, RCB’s first this season, while Punjab Kings captain Sam Curran was docked 50 per cent of his match fees for the same reason as Kohli — showing dissent at the umpire, which amounts to a Level 1 offence under the IPL’s ‘Code of Conduct’.