Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan has accused Indian batting star Virat Kohli of "fake fielding", robbing his team of five potentially vital penalty runs in their T20 World Cup game.
Set a revised target of 151 in 16 overs after a brief spell of rain, Bangladesh fell short by five runs.
While his skipper Shakib Al Hasan conceded that they lost fair and square, Nurul, who kept Bangladesh in the game in the final over with a six and a four off Arshdeep Singh, seemed to criticise the on-field umpires after the game.
The incident went unnoticed by the match officials.
The incident that Nurul was referring to happened in the seventh over. A video recording showed that Arshdeep threw the ball from the deep and Kohli -- at point -- feigned as if he were relaying it at the non-striker's end.
A relay throw is one where the fielder closer to the track catches the ball from deep and throws it at the stumps.
What the law says?
Law 41.5, pertaining to unfair play, prohibits the "deliberate distraction, deception or obstruction of (the) batter", and if an incident is deemed to be a breach, the umpire can declare that particular delivery as dead ball, and award the batting side five runs.
The two batters—Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto—didn't even look at Kohli and that's why Nurul's argument raises questions.
Hasan didn't mention if either of Das or Shanto spoke to him or to the team about distraction or deception from Kohli pretending to throw the ball to the keeper.
